Abstract
The economic value of photovoltaic (PV) systems depends on country-specific conditions. This study investigates the impact of grid fees, solar irradiance and local consumption on the profitability and penetration of PV systems and batteries in renewable energy communities. The linear optimization model calculates the optimal investments into PV and storages applied on a test community, which represents the European housing situation. The comparison of eight countries considers individual heat and cooling demands as well as sector coupling. Results show that renewable energy communities have the potential to reduce electricity costs due to community investments and load aggregation but do not necessarily lead to more distributed PV. Besides full-load hours, the energy component of electricity tariffs has the highest impact on PV distribution. Under current market conditions, battery energy storage systems are rarely profitable for increasing PV self-consumption but there is potential with power pricing. Renewable energy communities enable individuals to be a prosumer without the necessity of owning a PV system. This could lead to more (community) PV investments in the short term. Hence, it hinders investments in a saturated PV market.
Highlights
Each building has an individual limit for solar PV installations, the community can invest into a standalone PV system if economically feasible
The first market-driven PV installations were achieved with subsidies
The focus is not directed on self-consumption but on maximizing the PV generation to receive high feed-in remuneration
Summary
In order to decrease carbon emissions in electricity generation, photovoltaic (PV) systems will provide significant shares within the future renewable energy technology portfolio [1]. The penetration of PV systems will be accelerated with their profitability. Financial support systems triggered early PV system installations. Due to cost reduction of PV systems they have become profitable in many cases without financial support. PV systems will be profitable by collaborative consumption and/or electricity generation organized as Renewable Energy Communities (REC) [2]. In case the public grid is used for exchanging electric energy within the community, grid fees might apply, which has a significant impact on its economic feasibility. Besides price and solar radiance, the profitability of PV systems depends on the relevant electric load to be matched with PV generation
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