Techno-Economic Analysis of an Energy Community Based on PV and Electric Storage Systems in a Small Mountain Locality of South Italy: A Case Study

Abstract

The ecological transition at the centre of the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the relevant EU policies are increasingly becoming an emerging issue in the political choices of most countries. It is an important challenge to ensure sustainable development and overcome the issue of energy supply. Italy produces 35% of its electricity consumption, a too low percentage that obligates the nation to purchase abroad to cover the overall needs. Energy communities can represent an interesting and viable option for businesses and citizens struggling with the abrupt rising of energy prices. In community energy systems, the energy demand of a group of households or public services is met by electricity collectively generated through renewable sources and this feature is particularly suggested in small towns to promote social benefits and environmental advantages. In this work, possible scenarios of an implementable energy community were investigated for the small mountain municipality of Soveria Mannelli, located in Southern Italy. A building stock made of four public edifices was used as a reference case for which heating needs were determined by dynamic simulations based on the EN ISO 52016-1 procedure. Other simulations carried out in the TRNSYS environment allowed for implementing different schemes of the energy community considering diverse building interaction modes, in which photovoltaic generators and electric batteries cooperate to supply heat pump systems to assure the maximum share of self-consumed electric energy. Indeed, this paper is targeted at the identification of the best solution in terms of technical and economic performance. Despite an evident study limitation is represented by the exclusive use of PV and electric storage systems, the results demonstrate a potential CO2 emission reduction of over 80%. The more profitable solution for the Municipality was identified with an NPV of 11 k€ in 20 years with appreciable payback.

Key Economic Drivers Enabling Municipal Renewable Energy Communities’ Benefits in the Italian Context

“…In their study, Minuto and Lanzini [42] included a simulation of an energy community with 100 households and a 100 kWp photovoltaic system, and six scenarios were developed to explore how profits could be shared among various members. Cirone et al [43] tested various energy community configurations by incorporating photovoltaic generators and electric batteries to optimize self-consumption for heat pump systems, for a REC located in a small town in Southern Italy. Viti et al [44] compared the performance of an energy community with a configuration where customers act as single self-consumers and found that energy communities are able to accelerate renewable energy sources deployment, resulting in higher overall self-consumption rates.…”

Financial Investment Valuation Models for Photovoltaic and Energy Storage Projects: Trends and Challenges

“…According to Mohammed [57], the geographic and climatic characteristics of Saudi Arabia allow it to depend on renewable energy sources and consider them financially desirable, so the government promotes initiatives that allow the diversification of its energy sources, which also explains the interest of researchers in addressing issues associated with the valuation of non-conventional renewable energy generation projects, such as photovoltaic energy, with storage systems. In the case of Italy and Spain, the ecological transition raised in the United Nations Agenda 2030 and the policies defined by the European Union have become the central issue in the policy options of most countries and a challenge to ensure sustainable development and solve the problem of energy supply [58]. This motivates the study of issues related to power generation, such as photovoltaics integrated with storage systems to ensure supply.…”

Mapping of Energy Community Development in Europe: State of the Art and Research Directions

“…Different analyses in the literature show that the best economic configuration is not always the one that ensures the lowest environmental impact as is often the case for a range of energy systems. Cirone et al [104] show that when sizing PV and storage systems in an EC, the optimal emission savings and net present value may not correspond to the same system configuration, leading to the need to choose a specific priority when designing the system. Sudhoff et al [105] compare different operation strategies in a specific EC, showing that an optimisation of the economic benefits of its members does not reduce the annual peak load, while a strategy focused on a grid-friendly renewable EC achieves a peak power reduction of 23-55%.…”