Energy consumption characteristics and rooftop photovoltaic potential assessment of elevated metro station

Abstract

The current trend of urbanization has spurred the growth of the urban railway transportation sector, leading to increased carbon emission and environmental challenges. Applying renewable energy assisted power supply systems into metro stations is a feasible method for achieving decarbonization in urban transit systems. This study comprehensively reveals the real energy profile of a metro station on an hourly scale and establishes a multi-objective model to investigate the energy flexibility of the metro station with integrated battery energy storage for on-site renewable electricity consumption maximization. The results show that the elevated station has a photovoltaic potential of 20 %–25 %, in terms of self-sufficiency rate, when the rooftop of the station is fully utilized for photovoltaic array installation. Moreover, a photovoltaic-battery system in addition to a multi-objective mixed inter linear programming model is presented for the circumstance, there existing idle land around the station, to achieve a near-zero carbon station. It is indicated that the near-zero carbon station can be achieved with a minimum payback period of 11.5 years by optimizing the photovoltaic array size and battery storage capacity, leading to the annual carbon emission reduced from 457.1 to 91.4 tons. It is anticipated this study could provide reference for clean electrification and decarbonization in urban metro system.