Optimal investment analysis for heat pumps and nuclear heat in decarbonised Helsinki metropolitan district heating system

Pursiheimo, Esa; Lindroos, Tomi; Sundell, Dennis; Rämä, Miika; Tulkki, Ville

doi:10.1016/j.enss.2022.03.001

Cited by 11 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Nuclear-driven district heating systems are an appealing option for both densely populated cities and rural places since they can be economically provided for up to 160 km away at a competitive cost and with minimum heat loss [22,23]. Profoundly, it is possible to enhance efforts to combat climate change by substituting nuclear district heating for fossil fuel heating in buildings [24]. According to the International Energy Association's Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario, renewable and low-carbon sources will provide 91% of building heat in 2050.…”

Section: District Heatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear-Driven Integrated Energy Systems: A State-of-the-Art Review

2023

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Because of the growing concerns regarding climate change and energy sustainability, a transition toward a modern energy sector that reduces environmental effects while promoting social and economic growth has gained traction in recent years. Sustainable energy solutions, which include renewable and low-carbon sources such as nuclear energy and natural gas, could minimize emissions of greenhouse gases, enhance air and water quality, and encourage energy independence. Yet, the shift to a sustainable energy industry is fraught with difficulties, including governmental and regulatory obstacles, technological and economic limits, and societal acceptability hurdles. Addressing these issues would necessitate the development of long-term, durable, and cost-effective energy systems containing nuclear energy and associated with the generation of both electricity and other by-products required by industry. Integrated energy systems (IES) are a novel way to maximize the use of various energy resources and technologies in order to deliver dependable, efficient, and sustainable energy services. IES entail the integration of various energy systems, such as electricity, heating, cooling, and transportation, in respect to energy sustainability and a system’s resilience and flexibility. Their development and implementation require the cooperation of several parties, including energy providers and policymakers. This study provides a state-of-the-art literature review of the most creative nuclear-driven hybrid energy system applications and methodologies, from which the research challenges and prospects for effective IES implementation emerge.

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Section: District Heatingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nuclear-Driven Integrated Energy Systems: A State-of-the-Art Review

2023

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“…Energy system models in Backbone are composed of grids grouping nodes as well as units converting energy between nodes and across grids. Backbone is highly flexible in terms of systems it can represent, for example sector-coupled individual buildings, municipal systems or multi-national networks [37,63,64], and openly available at https://gitlab.vtt.fi/ backbone/backbone.…”

Section: Building Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

How user behaviour affects emissions and costs in residential energy systems—The impacts of clothing and thermal comfort

Huckebrink,

Finke,

Bertsch

2023

Environ. Res. Commun.

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To mitigate climate change, energy systems must be decarbonised. Human behaviour affects energy systems on residential scales through technology adoption and use, but is often neglected in models for analysing energy systems. We therefore study the optimal planning and operation of a sector-coupled residential energy system driven by economic and environmental interests and user behaviour in terms of desired thermal comfort and clothing. Methodologically, we combine a highly flexible energy system optimisation framework for investment and operational planning, a thermal building representation, a continuous and empirically founded objective for thermal comfort as the sole driver of heating demand and an analytical multi-objective optimisation method in one sector-coupled model. We find that optimal investment in and operation of technology are highly dependent on users’ clothing and the desired comfort level. Changing from unadapted to warm clothing in transition and winter season can reduce costs by 25 %, carbon emissions by 48 %, gas consumption by 84 %, heat demand by 20 % or necessary PV installations by 28 % without lowering thermal comfort. Similar reduction potentials are offered by lowering thermal comfort without changing clothing. We find that heat pumps, rooftop solar PV, batteries and generously sized water tanks are essential technologies that should be adopted regardless of user behaviour, while hydrogen is not. Full decarbonisation would require additional measures like refurbishments or further carbon-free energy sources. We conclude that in striving for decarbonisation and independency of gas, appropriate clothing and sector coupling should be promoted by policy makers and utilised by end-users as very efficient ways of reducing costs, carbon emissions, energy use and gas dependency.

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