SEAMS: an alternative techno-economic system to foster the sustainable development of renewable energy use in urban areas

Abstract

To foster the sustainable development of renewable energy use in urban areas, we define an alternative, reciprocity-based, techno-economic system named SEAMS (“sharing energy amongst adjacent buildings”). We demonstrate its relevance through a statistical analysis of linear heat density across coastal cities from Northwestern mainland France, and a comparison of four implementations of three techno-economic systems within the perimeter of two adjacent building blocks, located in the city center of Lorient (Brittany). The SEAMS approach promises to address the multidimensional fragility issues currently surfacing with the conventional, market-based or redistribution-based, techno-economic systems, namely electricity and gas networks (EGN) or district heating and cooling networks (DHCN).