Community Renewable Energy Research Articles

Optimal Operation of an Industrial Microgrid within a Renewable Energy Community: A Case Study of a Greentech Company

The integration of renewable energy sources in the European power system is one of the main goals set by the European Union. In order to ease this integration, in recent years, Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) have been introduced that aim to increase the exploitation of renewable energy at the local level. This paper presents an Energy Management System (EMS) for an industrial microgrid owned and operated by a greentech company located in the north of Italy. The company is a member of an REC. The microgrid is made of interconnected busbars, integrating photovoltaic power plants, a fleet of electric vehicles, including company cars and delivery trucks supporting Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), dedicated charging stations, and a centralized battery energy storage system. The industrial site includes two warehouses, an office building, and a connection to the external medium-voltage network. The EMS is designed to optimize the operation of the microgrid and minimize the operating costs related to the sale and purchase of energy from the external network. Furthermore, as the company is a member of an REC, the EMS must try to follow a desired power exchange profile with the grid, suggested by the REC manager, with the purpose of maximizing the energy that is shared within the community and incentivized. The results demonstrate that, when minimizing only costs, local self-consumption is favored, leading to a Self-Sufficiency Rate (SSR) of 65.37%. On the other hand, when only the adherence to the REC manager’s desired power exchange profile is considered in the objective function, the SSR decreases to 56.43%, net operating costs increase, and the energy shared within the REC is maximized.

Optimal design of renewable energy communities (RECs) in Italy: Influence of composition, market signals, buildings, location, and incentives

In Europe the concept of Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) renovates the need for decentralized energy generation among citizens and companies. The corresponding legal framework enables the creation of business models that shall support environmental, economic and social benefits, provided that adequate planning accounting for the local conditions is executed. The present work is focused on a thermal-electric co-simulation approach for the analysis of the energy exchanges within an Italian REC, aimed at sizing photovoltaics (PV) and energy storage systems. EnergyPlus is used to estimate the thermal and electric needs of the community, whose results are fed into the “EnergyCommunity.jl” tool for the design of the local power system. The influence of REC composition (prosumers/consumers), the building energy demands for heating, cooling, and appliances, the geography of the REC in Italian regions, the market data, and the total peak power of PV are examined. The self-consumed electricity, the energy shared among the community, and the social costs are evaluated in different scenarios, suggesting significant environmental and economic benefits for Energy Communities.

Thermal Energy Storage in Energy Communities: A Perspective Overview through a Bibliometric Analysis

The climate and energy crisis requires immediate countermeasures. Renewable energy communities (RECs) are capable of enhancing the consumption of renewable energy, involving citizens with a leading role in the energy transition process. The main objective of a REC is to maximize the consumption of renewable energy by reducing the mismatch between energy supply and demand. This is possible through the use of strategies and technologies including energy storage systems. Among these, the use of thermal energy storage (TES) is an efficient strategy due to the lower investment required compared to other storage technologies, like electric batteries. This study aims to define the role of TES in RECs, through a bibliometric analysis, in order to highlight research trends and possible gaps. This study shows that the existing literature on TES does not present terms related to RECs, thus presenting a research gap. On the other hand, RESs address the topic of energy storage in the literature, without focusing on TES in particular but considering the general aspect of the topic. Therefore, this leaves open a possibility for the development of research on TES as a possible technology applied to a REC to maximize the renewable energy sharing.

Towards a participatory energy transition. Critical issues and potentials of regulatory and financial instruments for Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) in Italy

Towards a participatory energy transition. Critical issues and potentials of regulatory and financial instruments for Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) in Italy

Decarbonized and Inclusive Energy: A Two-Fold Strategy for Renewable Energy Communities

Decarbonized and Inclusive Energy: A Two-Fold Strategy for Renewable Energy Communities

Powering the Future: An Integrated Framework for Clean Renewable Energy Transition

The transition to renewable energy has been recognized as a crucial step in addressing climate change and achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets, but it can also cause energy sprawl if not planned properly. Clean renewable energy communities (CREC) are emerging globally as an approach for decentralized energy systems and an alternative to traditional centralized energy systems. CREC aim to lower the energy carbon footprint, enhance local energy resilience, and improve the quality of life of residents. Through a comprehensive literature review, this study reviews metrics that can assess the impact of energy transition plans and support decision-making to select technologies that create efficient, reliable, and accessible energy systems. It classifies these metrics into a five-dimensional sustainability approach including environmental, technical, social, economic, and political and institutional dimensions. The paper proposes a conceptual framework to guide decision-makers in recognizing the role of sustainable land development, sustainable energy planning, and resiliency as an integrated approach to energy transition planning. This framework stresses mapping the place-based potential for clean renewable energy at various scales, highlights the importance of resilience in energy planning, and addresses challenges associated with energy source selection, built environment efficiency, and the energy trade. While the framework can serve as a starting point for evaluating energy transition plans, further work is needed to address the limitations of existing metrics and identify additional evaluations for mixed-energy land use that are critical to managing energy sprawl in terms of ecosystem services and other land uses.

A framework for shared EV charging in residential renewable energy communities

Renewable energy communities with members which own electric vehicles (EVs) can benefit financially from the flexibility that EVs provide to distributed energy resources, such as photovoltaic generators. However, in residential environments, this benefit is often lost because during working hours, most EVs are not plugged in at the premises of the community. In this paper, we hypothesize that such communities can regain some of this lost benefit by offering membership to outside EV owners which are interested in charging their vehicles using the community's charging stations during these periods. This paper introduces an optimization model for energy communities consisting of prosumers, electric vehicles, and EV chargers. The model aims to evaluate the potential advantages of integrating external EV owners into an energy community. A hypothetical community representing a multi-apartment building is analyzed, considering scenarios both with and without external members. The analysis focuses on assessing the technical and economic benefits. The findings indicate that the economic benefits for the examined community are relatively small. However, a notable increase in these benefits is observed when the community is incentivized to share energy among members in the form of a flat network charge reduction for shared energy.

A Dynamic Analysis of Biomethane Reforming for a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Operating in a Power-to-Heat System Integrated into a Renewable Energy Community

A Dynamic Analysis of Biomethane Reforming for a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Operating in a Power-to-Heat System Integrated into a Renewable Energy Community

Sizing distributed energy resources in a renewable energy community with a grid-aware internal market structure

This paper proposes a cooperative approach aimed at distributed energy resources sizing in a renewable energy community, with considerations of the community’s optimal operation, impact on the electrical grid and an allocation of the benefits to its members. To this purpose, multiple investment modes are evaluated via a two-step procedure. In the first step, the size of renewable energy sources is determined by solving an optimization problem that maximizes community welfare, considering network and investments. In the second step, an optimization problem maximizing additional community member profit with price regularization is solved. This step shares benefits among community members. The potential of the proposed procedure is illustrated using a benchmark Dickert-LV network. This is a full y cooperative framework where the community operator is ensuring adequate grid operation, operational planning and sizing of new investments.

Technological Elements behind the Renewable Energy Community: Current Status, Existing Gap, Necessity, and Future Perspective—Overview

The Renewable Energy Community (REC) in Europe promotes renewable energy sources (RESs), offering social, economic, and environmental benefits. This new entity could alter consumer energy relationships, requiring self-consumption, energy sharing, and full utilization of RESs. Modernizing energy systems within the REC requires addressing self-consumption, energy sharing, demand response, and energy management system initiatives. The paper discusses the role of decentralized energy systems, the scenarios of the REC concept and key aspects, and activities involving energy generation, energy consumption, energy storage systems, energy sharing, and EV technologies. Moreover, the present work highlights the research gap in the existing literature and the necessity of addressing the technological elements. It also highlights that there is no uniform architecture or model for the REC, like in the case of microgrids. Additionally, the present work emphasizes the role and importance of technological elements in RECs, suggesting future recommendations for EMS, DSM, data monitoring and analytics, communication systems, and the software or tools to ensure reliability, efficiency, economic, and environmental measures. The authors also highlight the crucial role of policymakers and relevant policies, which could help in implementing these technological elements and show the importance of the RECs for a sustainable energy shift and transition.

Computational Design of 2D Phosphorus Nanostructures for Renewable Energy Applications: A Review

AbstractElemental phosphorus in its various allotropes has received tremendous research attention recently due to its intriguing electronic and structural properties. Notably, the application of nanostructured materials to overcome the inherent flaws in bulk materials is promising. However, many challenges need to be addressed before its widespread implementation. Thus, a specific tenet to design novel and robust nanomaterials is a decisive factor in the desired outcome, and the most daunting task before realizing this is solving the Schrödinger equation. First principle density functional theory (DFT) calculations have emerged as an insightful and accurate design tool to investigate the structural, electronic, and possible synthesis scenarios of yet undiscovered materials at atomic levels. In this review, the basic principles and the importance of DFT are discussed, followed by a summary of recent advances in the first principle study of elemental phosphorus‐based nanomaterials. Elemental phosphorus‐based nanomaterials and their allotropes have attracted growing interest in the renewable energy community due to their modulable product selectivity. However, the understanding of the physical phenomena of allotropic modification is still lacking. Therefore, the aim is to motivate experimental researchers to conduct DFT studies and experiments to comprehend relevant engineered nanomaterials better. Finally, the challenges and potential future research directions for further theoretical and computational development of phosphorus‐based nanomaterials are outlined.

Agrivoltaic systems for sustainable energy and agriculture integration in Turkey

In recent years, the use of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, which is one of the leading renewable energy sources, has become increasingly widespread around the world due to its numerous advantages. However, PV-based electricity generation necessitates a large amount of land. Agrivoltaic (AV) systems, an innovative approach to combining agricultural and electricity production in the same area through solar modules positioned several meters above the surface of the ground, are growing rapidly in renewable energy and farming communities. This study explores Turkey's solar power generation and agricultural activities, combining crop cultivation and electricity generation for sustainable development on the same land. Furthermore, the AV potential for the most agriculture ten cities in different climate zones in Turkey is investigated using the PVsyst program. A list of the most commonly grown crops in the ten selected cities and the types of AV systems that can be employed with these crops is provided. The results show that AV systems present a great opportunity for the optimal integration of solar power generation with food production, especially for the cities of Konya, Kayseri, and Manisa, with the most ideal conditions for agricultural and solar power production. By combining the solar power potential of the country with the production capacity of arable lands, the increasing energy needs can be met and more efficient agricultural production can be provided. This study is expected to demonstrate that in specific regions of Turkey, AV farming will be suitable for certain crops.

Design and Operational Indicators to Foster the Transition of Existing Renewable Energy Communities towards Positive Energy Districts

Design and Operational Indicators to Foster the Transition of Existing Renewable Energy Communities towards Positive Energy Districts

Shared energy in renewable energy communities: The benefits of east- and west-facing rooftop photovoltaic installations

Renewable energy communities (RECs) offer a promising perspective for decarbonizing the building sector. This is accomplished by enhancing the uptake, among others, of citizen-owned rooftop photovoltaic systems. A key challenge lies in ensuring that photovoltaic generation matches the needs of community members, i.e. maximizing shared energy index. Indeed, the shared energy depends on the consumption habits of individual members and the rooftop characteristics, such as orientation and inclination of available pitches, which influence the production curve. Therefore, clear guidelines on which roof pitches are most suitable for PV generation within RECs might be helpful during the design of such communities. In this paper, we investigate the optimal orientations and tilt angles for PV systems in REC design. We conducted a robust Monte Carlo simulation of an energy community comprising 60 users, 30 of which are equipped with rooftop PV systems for a total of 150 kWp installed. Our analysis revealed that pitches with West and East offer comparable, if not better, shared energy values than those South-facing, consequently mitigating peak power dispatched to the grid. Besides, shared energy remains quite constant across various tilt angles. These findings suggest that buildings with non-South-facing roofs should not be overlooked, but embraced in the design of renewable energy communities as they can contribute significantly to shared energy.

Prospects and Obstacles Associated with Community Solar and Wind Farms in Jordan’s Suburban Areas

Jordan faces significant, immediate challenges of enhancing energy security while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. One of the most promising approaches to achieve sustainable development, energy security, and environmental conservation is to increase the integration of renewable energy into electricity generation. To this end, the Jordanian government aims to expand investments in the green energy sector, with solar and wind energy expected to play a crucial role in meeting energy demands and promoting environmental sustainability. This paper aims to examine the distinct dynamics, challenges, obstacles, and potential solutions related to establishing community solar and wind farms in suburban areas of Jordan. It seeks to highlight the opportunities and barriers influencing the adoption of sustainable energy in the country. Evaluation results from engaging 320 key stakeholders were obtained through a questionnaire, and after comprehensive analysis, it became evident that the benefits and positive aspects of solar and wind farms outweigh their drawbacks and obstacles. These insights can be useful in guiding policies and practices to make renewable energy community projects a reality within Jordan’s suburban areas. Additionally, the findings may serve as a valuable benchmark for other regions facing similar challenges in their pursuit of a sustainable energy future.

How national policies influence energy community development across Europe? A review on societal, technical, and economical factors

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) have been clearly defined in the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II (Directive 2018/2001) contained within the Clean Energy Package (CEP). This review moves from the state of the art of transposition processes in place in the different EU member states in order to highlight the main barriers regarding actual implementation of RECs, in terms of governance, technical issues and economic sustainability. The paper analyses the three levels of the structure of any REC: the social and governance level, the energy and technology optimization aspects, and the business models. The analysis has been conducted by considering the models developed in literature and the most interesting case studies where these models have been applied. The work aims at finding some conclusions about the interactions between the three levels mentioned above and national policy regulations, while identifying gaps in the currently available literature.

Renewable energy and well-being in remote Indigenous communities of Canada: A panel analysis

Energy transitions in Indigenous, Northern and remote communities in Canada promise benefits that go beyond reliable, clean and affordable energy services. The Federal and Provincial governments have committed funding to get remote communities off diesel, acknowledging energy transitions' global and local benefits. Besides climate change mitigation, other benefits, including job creation, income generation, community ownership and local economic growth, are fundamental components of the value proposition of renewable energy projects. However, despite the promises, little evidence of the impacts of renewable energy on communities' local conditions exists. This article looks at the relationship between renewable energy projects and community well-being in Canada. We construct a panel of Indigenous communities and well-being levels using Census data and information about renewable energy projects for the period 1981–2016. The findings suggest that renewable energy is associated with higher levels of well-being. Concretely, having access to renewable energy increases overall well-being by 1 to 5 points on the 0–100 well-being scale, depending on the component of the well-being index considered in the analysis.

Environmental Design on Site-Specific Energy Solidary Communities around Public High Schools in the Metropolitan Area of Naples (Italy)

Renewable energy communities (RECs) around photovoltaic systems on public buildings are optimal solutions to counter energy poverty, ensuring all stakeholders access to cheap, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy systems. As the neighborhood is the minimum suitable unit for the implementation of highly sustainable settlements, this article discusses the potential and criticality of RECs at this scale in southern Italy. Starting with the concept of RECs, this study presents a methodology to size sustainable urban communities around school buildings. It integrates practical energy indicators with those defining performance in vegetation and water management. The impact of these factors is analyzed to identify the ideal community size in terms of energy efficiency, economic value, and social cohesion. An interactive scorecard ranks high school sites suitable for transformation into community hubs, taking into consideration the scale of substation distribution. The findings provide empirically validated operational guidelines and best practices to support the transition to smart, efficient, and socially inclusive communities. At the urban scale, the analysis evaluates different urban morphologies, microclimates, characteristics and density of buildings, and population around each assumed community hub. The study provides valuable guidance to local designers, planners, and administrators for the implementation of sustainable technologies by preparing a map of potential RECs.

Levelized cost of electricity in renewable energy communities: Uncertainty propagation analysis

Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) are being deployed all around the World as a technically feasible solution to decreasing users' dependence on fossil fuels. Several demonstration facilities have shown their potential to provide final consumers with clean energy and all associated environmental benefits. However, the economic evaluation of these systems as a whole set is more complex than evaluating generation technologies individually, which can be considered a barrier, and it may be more complicated to calculate its uncertainty with precision. This paper deals with this challenge and adapts a model for the evaluation of the global Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) of a polygeneration microgrid to the characteristics of a typical REC, allowing the assessment of the distribution of the LCOE depending on the uncertainty of the input parameters. Thanks to its simple analytical formulation, the proposed model, that can be used for any combination of technologies (both renewable and conventional), provides relevant information on uncertainty propagation in a symbolic way that avoids the need to run numerical simulations or make assumptions on the distribution of the random input parameters. A case study has been presented, considering a typical small electrical REC with photovoltaic plants and micro wind turbines. Although the model can be defined to any market, as a representative example, it has been evaluated according to the current Spanish and Italian regulations, which are analyzed in depth with reference to the scientific literature. Results show that uncertainties in parameter estimates give rise to a very large scatter in the LCOE, pointing out a set of quantities whose role is crucial for a reliable estimate, among which electricity purchase and selling prices, yearly power load, and self-consumption / virtually-shared energy rates stand out.

Impact Analysis of Cyber Attacks against Energy Communities in Distribution Grids

With the advancement of regulations regarding the reduction in carbon emissions, renewable energy communities have come into the picture. However, many implications come with the installation of these communities from a cybersecurity point of view. The software platforms responsible for managing and controlling them handle a lot of crucial information, and therefore, tampering with these data can lead to several impacts on the operation of these communities and, in turn, the power grid as well. This paper examines the plausible impacts that can be caused by altering certain parameters of the system that make it a potential cyber attack target. The analysis is done by observing how the grid responds to these manipulations for both low-voltage as well as medium-voltage systems. These systems are designed along with integrated energy communities and are implemented in MATLAB/Simulink R2022b software. The observations are made by plotting the grid voltage and power profiles in normal as well as attacked conditions.