GreenVMAS: Virtual Organization Based Platform for Heating Greenhouses Using Waste Energy from Power Plants

• Main Authors: Alfonso González-Briones, Pablo Chamoso, Hyun Yoe, Juan M. Corchado
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-03-01
• Series: Sensors
• Subjects: waste energy reuse; power plant; greenhouse; context awareness; case-based reasoning; virtual organizations
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/3/861

The gradual depletion of energy resources makes it necessary to optimize their use and to reuse them. Although great advances have already been made in optimizing energy generation processes, many of these processes generate energy that inevitably gets wasted. A clear example of this are nuclear, thermal and carbon power plants, which lose a large amount of energy that could otherwise be used for different purposes, such as heating greenhouses. The role of GreenVMAS is to maintain the required temperature level in greenhouses by using the waste energy generated by power plants. It incorporates a case-based reasoning system, virtual organizations and algorithms for data analysis and for efficient interaction with sensors and actuators. The system is context aware and scalable as it incorporates an artificial neural network, this means that it can operate correctly even if the number and characteristics of the greenhouses participating in the case study change. The architecture was evaluated empirically and the results show that the user’s energy bill is greatly reduced with the implemented system.