Abstract
Fuel poverty is most prevalent in North East England with 14.4% of fuel poor households in Newcastle upon Tyne. The aim of this paper was to identify a grid connected renewable energy system coupled with natural gas reciprocating combined heat and power unit, that is cost-effective and technically feasible with a potential to generate a profit from selling energy excess to the grid to help alleviate fuel poverty. The system was also aimed at low carbon emissions. Fourteen models were designed and optimized with the aid of the HOMER Pro software. Models were compared with respect to their economic, technical, and environmental performance. A solution was proposed where restrictions were placed on the size of renewable energy components. This configuration consists of 150 kW CHP, 300 kW PV cells, and 30 kW wind turbines. The renewable fraction is 5.10% and the system yields a carbon saving of 7.9% in comparison with conventional systems. The initial capital investment is $1.24 million which enables the system to have grid sales of 582689 kWh/a. A conservative calculation determined that 40% of the sales can be used to reduce the energy cost of fuel poor households by $706 per annum. This solution has the potential to eliminate fuel poverty at the site analyzed.
Highlights
Fuel poor households account for 11.1% of the dwellings in England
The solutions that were generated by the software for each of the proposed models contained the details on the system design, capacities of the components, costs, fuel consumption, renewable fraction and carbon dioxide emissions
The electricity generated with the use of a Combined heat and power systems (CHP) unit fueled with natural gas is cheaper than that generated in power plants due to the difference between tariff levels for gas and electricity supply with gas having a lower price per unit of energy
Summary
Fuel poor households account for 11.1% of the dwellings in England. There are several schemes and policies in place to address the problem; fuel poverty rate increases steadily. Solutions proposed by the Government, Winter Payment and Warm Home Discount for example, reach only 10% of those in fuel poverty. Other initiatives such as improving energy efficiency of the housing stock in fuel poverty require substantial funding [1]. Fuel poverty solutions that address climate change by utilizing renewable energy sources and emission saving technologies may prove to be financially and technically feasible. Such innovations reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and create opportunities to utilize financial gains from energy generation toward helping to reduce fuel poverty for qualifying tenants
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