Solar PV sharing in urban energy communities: Impact of community configurations on profitability, autonomy and the electric grid

Mehta P, Tiefenbeck V (2022)


Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2022

Journal

Book Volume: 87

Article Number: 104178

DOI: 10.1016/j.scs.2022.104178

Abstract

Through a deterministic techno-economic analysis based on high-resolution real-world demand data from 3,594 households, we analyse how the configuration of a solar energy community (EC) impacts its economic and technical performance. We find that prosumer ratio and PV capacity, but not community size, affect prosumer profitability and EC self-sufficiency rate (SSR). The profitable prosumer share in an EC falls below 25% as the prosumer ratio increases beyond 30% for PV systems sized to meet annual demand (M-sized), and 50%, respectively, for systems sized to meet twice the annual demand (L-sized) due to economies of scale. The SSR steadily increases with prosumer ratio and PV capacity to a maximum of 37.8%. However, all three EC design dimensions influence the grid impact. In the absence of energy storage, this imposes a permissible range on the prosumer ratio to avoid grid upgrades – 60-100% and 30-50% for M- and L-sized systems, respectively, which in turn limits the SSR to 29.4-33.3% and 28.2-33.1%. The results establish clear configurations that strike a good balance between different performance metrics of an EC. EC planners, policymakers, and grid operators can build on these results as rules of thumb to incentivize EC formation while maximizing welfare for all stakeholders.

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How to cite

APA:

Mehta, P., & Tiefenbeck, V. (2022). Solar PV sharing in urban energy communities: Impact of community configurations on profitability, autonomy and the electric grid. Sustainable Cities and Society, 87. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2022.104178

MLA:

Mehta, Prakhar, and Verena Tiefenbeck. "Solar PV sharing in urban energy communities: Impact of community configurations on profitability, autonomy and the electric grid." Sustainable Cities and Society 87 (2022).

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