Community Renewable Energy Research Articles

Digital Platforms for Renewable Energy Communities Projects: An Overview

The European Union energy policy agenda of achieving the transition to carbon neutrality has been established by an important legislative package called "Clean Energy for all Europeans". A novel approach introduced was to put the citizen at the center of the energy transition. On one side, by powering his freedom of action and, on the other side, by asking him an exceptional engagement in energy consumption reduction activities and in participating in the investments for new distributed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) power plants. The Renewable Energy Communities (REC) is the policy framework used to implement this strategy introduced by the Renewable Energy Directive Recast (RED II). In particular, RECs promote citizen’s active role by encouraging energy consumption reduction and energy demand flexibility while reducing the Not In My Bachyard (NIMBY) effect towards RES. Each member state is transposing the RED II directive, adapting it to national legislation and energy transition strategy. Pioneers countries like Italy have already started the experimentation of this framework and developing the first pilot projects. The citizens’ interest and their will to participate in REC projects indicate the need for supporting tools guiding them along all the project development stages: “design”, “creation”, and “operation”. This work presents three categories of supporting digital tools and platforms required to develop REC projects: Commercial, EU Founded and Freeware. We analyzed 30 tools, evaluating the services provided in each of the different stages of REC project implementation.

European small-town Renewable Energy Communities: Participatory design of supporting tools as a vehicle to engage and understand local communities and their energy related concerns

Renewable Energy Communities (REC) are an emerging initiative that aims to contribute to the energy transition towards a more decentralised system in Europe by encouraging local communities to come together and invest in and operate renewable energy assets together.Decision-making processes of these communities need to be supported by adequate tools, which also can be used in the formation of the community groups in the first place. In this paper a case-study of four European small-town communities in Berchidda (Italy), Ollersdorf (Austria), Ispaster (Spain), and Kökar (Finland) carried out in the context of the LocalRES project is presented, where a participatory design methodology has been applied to co-create community supporting tools. Feedback gathered during four citizen workshops is presented, showing that to optimally support RECs in their formation and operation three main topics need to be supported: (1) the technical realisation and potential upgrades of the energy system, i.e., visualising energy generation and consumption on an individual and a community level, (2) the financial and economic implications of investments, i.e., calculating costs and return on investment for the individual and for the community, as well as (3) the social dimension and communication between community members and other relevant stakeholders, i.e., helping with community building and community engagement. The participatory process presented in the case studies does not only serve to gather requirements for tool design, but it also is a useful vehicle to bring together all interested citizens and understand their needs and concerns. A summary of this detailed citizen feedback is also presented.

Renewable Energy Communities as Modes of Collective Prosumership: A Multi-Disciplinary Assessment, Part I—Methodology

Citizens are set to play an active role in the energy transition by transforming from ‘passive’ consumers to ‘active’ prosumers. Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are envisioned as modes of collective prosumership by citizens under the Renewable Energy Directive of 2018 (RED II). A holistic understanding of RECs is essential to identify the benefits and challenges of collective prosumership. RECs have been the topic of several modelling studies, but a single model that simulates RECs from an integrated perspective—combining technical, economic and ecological analysis—is absent. Wide variability in the indicators discourages comparison of the results across studies. This article builds on the existing knowledge by proposing an integrated model to undertake a multi-disciplinary assessment of a potential REC. First, the proposed model analyses the technical possibilities of collective prosumership using energy flow analysis based on consumption and generation profiles. Second, the model evaluates the economic impacts of prosumership from two perspectives: from the consumers’ perspective (in terms of the annual cost of energy consumption) and from an investor’s perspective (in terms of the net present value of the investment). Thirdly, the model quantifies the annual greenhouse gas emissions of energy consumption (expressed in CO2 equivalent) to evaluate the ecological impact of prosumership. Lastly, a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) are proposed that can be used to interpret and compare the results of simulations and are mapped to the actors in the REC in line with their objectives. The proposed approach offers a single, replicable model that can be used to simulate RECs in the different Member States of the European Union. The KPIs can be used to compare the impact of combinations of various prosumership activities within the same REC or to compare two different RECs on the benefits offered vis-a-vis the investments incurred. The KPIs also offer insights into the aligning and conflicting objectives of the stakeholders of the REC.

Renewable Energy Communities as Modes of Collective Prosumership: A Multi-Disciplinary Assessment Part II—Case Study

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) have been defined as modes of collective prosumership under the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). We evaluate the benefits offered by RECs and the barriers and enablers impacting their uptake. Germany is taken as a case study for a novel multi-disciplinary assessment of a potential REC intended as a climate-neutral, mixed-use district. We found that energy cooperatives may not be suited to form RECs, but the future may see an uptake of innovative organizational structures such as the Consumer Stock Ownership Plan. It has been shown that a high degree of prosumership can provide technical and economic benefits with maximum greenhouse gas savings of 35% and a maximum self-consumption share of 61% compared to no prosumership. The REC has a negative Net Present Value (NPV) after 25 years of operation and lacks financial attractiveness. A positive NPV is only possible by using the cost savings from prosumership to recoup the investments faster. RECs are a promising mode of citizen participation in the energy transition; however, for their application in Germany, together with the currently missing regulatory allowance of sharing energy between small-scale parties over a public grid, dedicated subsidies, one-time grants or price support for operators are needed.

Flexible Loads Scheduling Algorithms for Renewable Energy Communities

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are emerging as an effective concept and model to empower the active participation of citizens in the energy transition, not only as energy consumers but also as promoters of environmentally friendly energy generation solutions, particularly through the use of photovoltaic panels. This paper aims to contribute to the management and optimization of individual and community Distributed Energy Resources (DER). The solution follows a price and source-based REC management program, in which consumers’ day-ahead flexible loads (Flex Offers) are shifted according to electricity generation availability, prices, and personal preferences, to balance the grid and incentivize user participation. The heuristic approach used in the proposed algorithms allows for the optimization of energy resources in a distributed edge-and-fog approach with a low computational overhead. The simulations performed using real-world energy consumption and flexibility data of a REC with 50 dwellings show an average cost reduction, taking into consideration all the seasons of the year, of 6.5%, with a peak of 12.2% reduction in the summer, and an average increase of 32.6% in individual self-consumption. In addition, the case study demonstrates promising results regarding grid load balancing and the introduction of intra-community energy trading.

Renewable Energy Communities as an Enabling Framework to Boost Flexibility and Promote the Energy Transition

Undelayable environmental requirements and the energy crisis following the pandemic, further increased by international contingencies, have evidenced the need to push forward with the energy transition and intensify the use of renewable energy to satisfy energy needs, with more flexible, resilient, and sustainable energy being required [...]

Addressing Energy Poverty in the Energy Community: Assessment of Energy, Environmental, Economic, and Social Benefits for an Italian Residential Case Study

Although a clear definition of energy poverty has not been reported in the scientific literature or in general energy directives, this condition affects about 10% of European people. During the last three years, the COVID-19 pandemic combined with the increase in energy bill costs due to energy conflicts has determined the increment of energy poverty. The Renewable Energy Directive, that defines a new legal entity named Renewable Energy Community as a new end-users’ organization, recognizes the chance for low-income households to benefit from being able to access affordable energy tariffs and energy efficiency measures thanks to these new entities. Thus, this paper analyses the energy, economic, and environmental performances of a renewable energy community composed of three residential users distributed in two buildings located in the south of Italy, and one of these buildings is equipped by a rooftop photovoltaic plant. The plants were modelled and simulated through HOMERPRO simulation software while the building energy loads are real and were imported from an energy distributor dataset and were processed in the MATLAB simulation interface. The analysis concerned the comparison of the energy performance achieved by one case in which no renewable plants were installed, and by another case in which the end-users took part in the renewable energy community by sharing the photovoltaic “produced” electricity. The investigation was conducted in terms of the quantity of electricity imported from the power grid and consumed on-site, the avoided emissions, and the operating costs. The business plan has been devoted to defining the advantages of the energy community for vulnerable end-users in a popular neighborhood council estate by evaluating the social energy poverty indexes. The results showed that through the renewable energy community, a mitigation of energy poverty is obtained within a range of 12–16%.

More Circular City in the Energy and Ecological Transition: A Methodological Approach to Sustainable Urban Regeneration

Cities consume over 75% of natural resources, produce over 50% of global waste, and emit 60–80% of greenhouse gases. The scenario that by 2050 two thirds of the world population will live in cities, highlights how cities are still responsible for the growing consumption characterized by linear economic processes, with the production of various types of waste. In this unsustainable framework, the Circular Economy offers the opportunity to shape the urban system by means of rethinking the possibility to produce and use goods and services, exploring new ways to ensure long-term prosperity. The Circular City paradigm contains in fact all the principles of the Circular Economy: recovery, recycling, and sharing. In particular, Circular City also introduces actions related to the development of renewable energy communities, use of green materials, CO2 absorption approaches, and Proximity Cities. This work aims to develop a methodology to build a composite index (Circular City Index) capable of measuring the degree of implementation of urban policies that may enable an ecological transition of public assets. Circular City Index was applied to the military cluster of the city of Cagliari (Sardinia, Italy), a significant case study to guide circular policies in public properties for civil and military uses.

From theory to practice: Supporting industrial decarbonization and energy cooperation in Austria

A promising way to enhance sustainability and primary energy efficiency on an industrial scale is energy cooperation or industrial symbiosis. Due to heterogenic structures, there is no standard recipe to implement synergies - but the potential role of facilitators has been mentioned several times before. As external facilitators, we applied a mixed approach of interviews and workshops to push the development of energy cooperation at an Austrian industrial port & business park. The site was chosen to put the development process and theoretical cooperation solutions to the test.In collaboration with the park management and companies, synergy potentials were elaborated. In total 24 companies were interviewed, two workshops with companies and external experts conducted, an energy working group established and an energy roadmap drafted. Among the opportunities identified are i) enforced exchange of information on cooperation potentials and technical opportunities, ii) joint energy purchase and renewable energy communities, iii) inter-company waste heat utilization and iv) joint strategies on optimizing heavy transport.From our experiences we conclude that the most important barriers are missing knowledge and communication on possible synergies. These are followed by economic, technical and framework barriers. The applicability of cooperation solutions is highly case-specific. We found that solutions are more likely to be implemented given continuous information exchange, potentially initiated by a dominant and integrative company or central institution, which is in line with experiences reported for other cases. Thus, we strongly support to continue research on industrial symbiosis and funding of entities, which facilitate industrial symbiosis development.

Digital platforms for Renewable Energy Communities projects: an overview.

The European Union energy policy agenda of achieving the transition to carbon neutrality has been established by an important legislative package called “Clean Energy for all Europeans”. A novel approach introduced was to put the citizen at the center of the energy transition. On one side, by powering his freedom of action and, on the other side, by asking him an exceptional engagement in energy consumption reduction activities and in participating in the investments for new distributed Renewable Energy Sources (RES) power plants. The Renewable Energy Communities (REC) is the policy framework used to implement this strategy introduced by the Renewable Energy Directive Recast (RED II). In particular, RECs promote citizen’s active role by encouraging energy consumption reduction and energy demand flexibility while reducing the Not In My Bachyard (NIMBY) effect towards RES. Each member state is transposing the RED II directive, adapting it to national legislation and energy transition strategy. Pioneers countries like Italy have already started the experimentation of this framework and developing the first pilot projects. The citizens’ interest and their will to participate in REC projects indicate the need for supporting tools guiding them along all the project development stages: “design”, “creation”, and “operation”. This work presents three categories of supporting digital tools and platforms required to develop REC projects: Commercial, EU Founded and Freeware. We analyzed 30 tools, evaluating the services provided in each of the different stages of REC project implementation.

Integrating Renewable Energy Sources in Italian Port Areas towards Renewable Energy Communities

The impact of ports on urban areas’ decarbonization to reduce air and environmental pollution effects to achieve sustainable development is undeniable, especially in the marine transportation sector. In this case, applied studies that can contribute to existing knowledge on increasing ports’ energy self-sufficiency using renewable energy sources (RESs) are critical and necessary. In this study, firstly, (1) the RESs assessment prioritization methodology was designed for Lazio ports. Additionally, (2) long-term solar radiation and wind speed were analyzed using the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) dataset of Lazio ports. Furthermore, (3) the time-series, normal-distribution and correlation methods were applied to the generated energy source, based on various parameters of the RESs used in the ports. Finally, (4) Italian port areas, towards renewable energy community (REC) scenarios, were analyzed and developed.

Techno–economic simulation and evaluation of scalable ‘energy cells’ locally generating renewable energy

The ERA-Net SES project Regional Renewable Energy Cells (R2EC) [1] aims at developing a scalable system for decentralized, interacting ‘energy cells’ with a high concentration of locally generated renewable energy. ‘Energy cells’ are essentially Renewable Energy Communities (ECs) in the European context. The system aims at maximizing the utilization of locally generated renewable energy through Electrical Storage (ES) as well as high-electric applications like e‑heating, Heat Pumps (HPs), and E‑Vehicles (EVs). The system is also designed to interact with other energy cells locally, thus, improving the utilization of locally generated energy.A variety of different adjacent energy cells in three countries, Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), and Norway (NO), are analyzed, and the results are used for the development of regional and renewable energy cell systems. This approach aims at developing tailor-made solutions that meet the different local and regional requirements and the electrical energy demand of the observed energy cells. A unique opportunity is created, as the three countries are at varying levels of regional development in the field of energy communities, and the regional requirements and conditions differ significantly. A comprehensive investigation of the technical and economic viability of the ECs in the three regions is conducted on a simulation level. The technical simulation results show an increased self-consumption of individual users and the overall cell in all of the observed testbeds, while the economic analysis shows economic benefits at varying levels in each of the observed testbeds. The implemented R2EC system ascertains both technical and economic viability in the observed testbeds.

A Practical Methodology for Building a Municipality-Led Renewable Energy Community: A Photovoltaics-Based Case Study for the Municipality of Hersonissos in Crete, Greece

This paper presents a practical methodology to facilitate decision-making for the development of a renewable energy community (REC) in the municipality of Hersonissos in Crete, Greece. The impact of energy sharing produced from renewables through direct or indirect citizen participation presents an enormous opportunity to strengthen energy democracy and to alleviate energy poverty. Triggered by the latter being amongst the most essential goals for implementing policies towards low-carbon economies at the local level, the current study presents a step-by-step methodology to facilitate decision-making for building a municipality-led REC. Initially, potential sites and alternative sittings of photovoltaic (PV) plants are explored for detecting the optimal installation with respect to technical and possible legislative restrictions. The best REC business model is then selected based on a SWOT analysis, complemented with a detailed techno-economic analysis of the foreseen investments. According to the design calculations, the optimal PV plants/business-model option that emerged may achieve impressive environmental and economic benefits, i.e., reducing the municipality’s annual electricity-induced CO2 emissions and electricity expenses by at least 68.40% and 594,461.54 €, respectively.

Energetic and Economic Performances of the Energy Community of Magliano Alpi after One Year of Piloting

Italy’s first renewable energy community, located in the municipality of Magliano Alpi, was established under Italian Law 8/2020 on Energy Communities in December 2020. The community is composed of eight stakeholders and involves, in addition to public buildings in the municipality of Magliano Alpi, some residential users and small and medium-sized enterprises, realizing public–private cooperation aimed at reducing energy dependence on the public grid and, at the same time, contributing to the decarbonization of the energy sector. This article provides an analysis of the economic and energy performance during the first year of renewable community piloting. The study analyzes data collected with the community energy management system and introduces a number of key performance indices useful for evaluating further development and optimization options.

Stakeholder Perspectives on Community Energy Contributing to the Use of Renewable Energy Sources and Improving Energy Security in Nigeria

The need for improved energy security in Nigeria cannot be over-emphasized. Currently, energy security is rather poor, while access to energy is fundamental to socio-economic development and poverty alleviation. Renewable energy could potentially contribute to resolving this because renewable sources such as solar radiation are more available and sustainable, and can be set up in small generation units, meaning that it is suitable for community management and ownership. In theory, a community energy approach could well apply. In this paper, the main research question is: In what ways can community energy initiatives contribute to increasing the use of renewable energy sources and improving energy security in Nigeria according to selected stakeholders and households? A mixed methods research approach was used to answer this question, with stakeholder interviews and survey data from 124 residents in two case studies of selected housing estates in Lagos. The results show that 58% of the households and most of the stakeholders express support for community renewable energy as a viable approach for increasing energy access and greening energy supply. The present study shows that there is a need to raise awareness and support projects for effective and supportive renewable energy policy to encourage local renewable energy community formation.

Predicting acceptance and adoption of renewable energy community solutions: the prosumer psychology.

Background: This paper, in the frame of social acceptance of renewable energies and innovative community-based production and consumption models, aims at supporting a data-driven approach able to deal with climate change and identify and quantify the psycho-sociological dimensions and factors that could support the transition from a technology-driven approach to a consumer-driven approach throughout the emerging " prosumer business models". In addition to the already existing Social Acceptance dimensions, this paper tries to identify a purely individual psychological fourth dimension to understand the processes and factors that underlie individual acceptance and adoption of new renewable energy business models, with the realization of a Prosumer Acceptance Index. Methods: Questionnaire data collection has been performed throughout an online survey platform, combining standardized and ad-hoc questions adapted for the research purposes, based on the developed theoretical model. To identify the main factors (individual/social) influencing the relation with renewable energy technology adoption, a Factorial Analysis has been conducted to identify the latent variables that are related to each other. Linear regression has been conducted to identify and quantify the factors that could better predict behavioural intention to become a prosumer. Results: Five latent psychological factors were revealed: concern about environmental issues, interest in energy sharing, concern on climate change, social influence and impact on bill cost. Three variables were found to significantly measure and predict the scores of the "Acceptance in becoming a prosumer" ad hoc scale: attitude, economic incentive and age. Conclusions: This research can facilitate policymakers and stakeholders to better understand which relevant psycho-sociological factors are intervening in the renewable energy technology acceptance processes and what and how specifically target when proposing change towards sustainable energy production and consumption.

Selection of Best Suitable Eco-Friendly Refrigerants for HVAC Sector and Renewable Energy Devices

This paper investigates the selection of the best suitable eco-friendly organic and in-organic refrigerants for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and renewable energy devices. Inorganic and organic refrigerants are used to cool renewable energy devices, such as solar cells, photovoltaics, and electronic devices. Owing to the renewable energy community’s importance, development in this area has rapidly improved over the past few years. R134a, R404, and R717 have become the most used refrigerants in the HVAC sector and supermarkets across the globe for both cooling and frozen food refrigeration. R134a and R404A have two significant drawbacks: (a) they do not attain optimal energy efficiency in many applications, and (b) they have a large global warming potential (GWP). Hence, optimization experiments were performed to select low global potential refrigerants for replacing R134a and R404A from the HVAC sector and supermarkets using multi-criteria making (MCDN) tools. The techniques used for investigation involved (i) the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), (ii) evaluation based on distance from average solution (EDAS), and (iii) multi-objective optimization based on ratio analysis (MOORA). The assessment criteria of optimization involved (i) thermo–physical properties of refrigerants, (ii) environmental aspects of refrigerants, and (iii) economic status of refrigerants. Out of 27 refrigerants chosen for the study, R290 (PROPANE) aced the selection by all the three techniques, i.e., TOPSIS, EDAS, and MOORA, with assessment scores of 0.6056, 0.6761, and 0.466, respectively. R41 (FLUOROMETHANE) is the least preferred refrigerant by EDAS (assessment score—0.3967) and MOORA, while R407C is the least preferred by TOPSIS (assessment value—0.5123). The likelihood of making a bad refrigerant decision may be reduced by the effective evaluation of the MCDM analysis. In conclusion, the suggested MCDM technique provides a practical tool and systematic way for reducing the number of options and may be utilized to identify the ideal refrigerant.

A multi-criteria approach to designing and managing a renewable energy community

The energy communities based on the integration of microgrids make it possible to gain economic, environmental, technical, and social benefits. The paper aims to propose a unified multi-criteria approach covering both the planning stage and the stage of managing the energy community, in the context of various interests of its participants. Planning stage should take into account the long-term goals of the community and possible changes in external conditions. Therefore, we suggest an approach relying on the multi-attribute value theory considering the uncertainty of decision makers' preferences. Interval estimators used to express preferences enable a choice of community configuration with robust performance under changing conditions within some limits. In the operation stage, the new multi-criteria model of an intelligent "energy community operator" is proposed. It is based on bi-level programming and reinforcement learning, implementing the structure of a fair local market for sustainable development of the community. To optimize the operation of individual microgrids within the community, the multi-objective Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm is used, which helps to improve the convergence in the Stackelberg game. The multi-criteria version of the MCTS algorithm allows implementing an adaptive local automation model to solve a multi-objective lower-level problem: minimize operating costs, risk of power shortage, and CO2 emissions; smooth load peaks, and optimize power exchange between microgrids. At the top level, a management strategy that will be beneficial to all members of the community is chosen to guarantee their long-term aggregation. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by the example of an energy community created for three remote villages located on the coast of the Sea of Japan. The natural and climatic conditions of the area allow the efficient use of wind, solar, and biomass resources. Building the community involves the consideration of three scenarios, in which priority is given to economic efficiency, environmental efficiency, or balanced development.

Synergies between Power-to-Heat and Power-to-Gas in renewable energy communities

The deployment of intermittent renewables in distributed energy systems has to be managed so as to maximise local energy self-consumption. This paper deals with the application of sector coupling strategies to increase energy self-consumption and decarbonise urban energy districts. The aim of this work is to investigate the combined implementation of Power-to-Gas and Power-to-Heat strategies in Renewable Energy Communities. Power-to-Power, Power-to-Heat and Power-to-Gas systems, along with their combined adoption, have been implemented in a residential community under different renewable excess conditions. For each strategy, the storage system's size has been optimised and the configurations have been compared in energy, environmental and economic terms. The Power-to-Heat strategy is the most cost-effective solution, although it presents intrinsic limitations. The Power-to-Gas configuration involves the hydrogen injection into the gas grid, thus exploiting the local network as a free storage system. Higher self-consumption can be achieved; nevertheless, energy and emissions savings are lower due to the electrolyser poor efficiency. The combined application of the two sector coupling strategies allows the strategies individual advantages to be exploited and the limitations of both to be overcome. Furthermore, this solution leads to higher self-consumption and lower annual costs than conventional electric batteries.

Expected benefits and foreseen steps in creating energy communities in Romania

In 2019 the EU updated its energy policy (by adopting the Clean energy for all Europeans package) to enhance the transition from fossil fuels towards green energy - implementing the commitments of the EU’s Paris Agreement (adopted at the COP21 in December 2015) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement on this new energy rulebook marked a significant step towards implementing the energy union strategy, published in 2015. Through this package, the EU has introduced the concept of energy communities in its legislation, notably as citizen energy communities and renewable energy communities. To incorporate the new regulations introduced by this package in the Romanian law, the Romanian government issued an Emergency Ordinance (143/December 28, 2021), that updates the Electrical energy and natural gas law (123/2012). The concept of energy communities is, from now on, part of our own legislation, and the creation of such communities in Romania can start, although there are still many questions regarding the effective steps to be taken in this process. This paper tries to emphasize the foreseen advantages of this new concept and how it could be implemented in our country.