Abstract
The limitation of fossil fuel uses and GHG (greenhouse gases) emissions reduction are two of the main objectives of the European energy policy and global agreements that aim to contain climate changes. To this end, the building sector, responsible for important energy consumption rates, requires a significant improvement of its energetic performance, an obtainable increase of its energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources. Within this framework, in this study, we analysed the economic feasibility of a stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) plant, dimensioned in two configurations with decreasing autonomy. Their Net Present Value at the end of their life span was compared with that of the same plant in both grid-connected and storage-on-grid configurations, as well as being compared with a grid connection without PV. The analysis confirms that currently, for short distances from the grid, the most suitable PV configuration is the grid-connected one, but also that the additional use of a battery with a limited capacity (storage on grid configuration) would provide interesting savings to the user, guaranteeing a fairly energetic autonomy. Stand-alone PV systems are only convenient for the analysed site from distances of the order of 5 km, and it is worth noting that such a configuration is neither energetically nor economically sustainable due to the necessary over-dimensioning of both its generators and batteries, which generates a surplus of energy production that cannot be used elsewhere and implies a dramatic cost increase and no corresponding benefits. The results have been tested for different latitudes, confirming what we found. A future drop of both batteries’ and PV generators’ prices would let the economic side of PV stand-alone systems be reconsidered, but not their energetic one, so that their use, allowing energy exchanges, results in being more appropriate for district networks. For all PV systems, avoided emissions of both local and GHG gases (CO2) have been estimated.
Highlights
The limitation of fossil fuel use, a major cause of the present day climate change, along with greenhouse gas emission reduction [1,2,3], represent the main energy challenges that must be faced, being fundamental aspects of international agreements (COP 2015) and EU (European Union) Directives [4,5], which are addressed in order to reduce primary energy consumption and increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) [6,7,8,9]
With low primary energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions, in a cost-optimal vision [27,28]: in the EU, this has allowed for the legislative implementation of the ambitious nZEB
The integration of RES plants with energy storage systems allows for the satisfactory guarantee of
Summary
The limitation of fossil fuel use, a major cause of the present day climate change, along with greenhouse gas emission reduction [1,2,3], represent the main energy challenges that must be faced, being fundamental aspects of international agreements (COP 2015) and EU (European Union) Directives [4,5], which are addressed in order to reduce primary energy consumption and increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) [6,7,8,9].A significant rate of primary energy (with the associated greenhouse gas emissions) is consumed in buildings: with reference to Italy, potential savings are about 40% in energy end-use and 36%in greenhouse gases (GHG). The limitation of fossil fuel use, a major cause of the present day climate change, along with greenhouse gas emission reduction [1,2,3], represent the main energy challenges that must be faced, being fundamental aspects of international agreements (COP 2015) and EU (European Union) Directives [4,5], which are addressed in order to reduce primary energy consumption and increase the share of renewable energy sources (RES) [6,7,8,9]. With low primary energy consumption and greenhouse gases emissions, in a cost-optimal vision [27,28]: in the EU, this has allowed for the legislative implementation of the ambitious nZEB Future challenges and a roadmap on this matter are reported in [31,32,33]
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