Green Energy for Sustainable Agriculture: Design and Testing of an Innovative Greenhouse with an Energy-Efficient Cooling System Powered by a Hybrid Energy System for Urban Agriculture

This research is geared towards developing a new greenhouse for urban and peri urban agriculture, adequate to tropical savanna weather conditions with an energy-efficient cooling system powered by a small hybrid energy system. A design and CFD-based simulations were carried out and the prototype was built and tested in Kinshasa. This chapter aims at presenting the proposed greenhouse shape, the result of CFD simulations, the energy demand, the greenhouse operating system and the field-based testing result. Based on the meteorological Data analysis, a specific greenhouse structure of 32 × 13.5 m was designed with an opening in the West. The proposed cooling technology uses an evaporative cooling approach harnessing natural ventilation associated with 6 exhaust fans, a misting system, and a shading system used in intermittent way to enhance energy efficiency. The CFD simulations has shown an even distribution of temperature and satisfactory air circulation in the proposed greenhouse. The field-based testing has shown 1–7 °C of indoor air cooling compared to the outside temperature and 1–24% in relative humidity increasing including a slight influence of the shading system on solar irradiation penetration. The greenhouse costs 3.9 USD/m2 with 6.3 kWh/day energy-consumption in summer and 1.7 kWh/day in winter.