The energy sector is responsible for 73% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it central to climate change mitigation. Among renewable technologies, solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) stands out for its scalability and cost-effectiveness, though its deployment is hindered by space constraints, intermittency in production and low energy density. Effective integration into large-scale systems requires tools that consider spatial availability, production-consumption mismatch, as well as the operational characteristics and costs of different potential applications of PV technology. This study evaluates various types of application of PV (rooftop, ground-mounted, agrivoltaics, and floating) within a large-scale energy system composed of thousands of users of different types across a wide geographical area. PV technologies may be coupled with Electric Energy Storage (ES) to enhance flexibility. The goal is to assess the energy generation potential, associated costs, environmental benefits, and impacts on the power grid of utilizing the available area for PV installation. To this end, a multi-objective optimization model is developed, minimizing total costs, CO₂ emissions, and electric production-consumption mismatch. Results demonstrate that exploiting the available surface areas for PV production can reduce total costs by 36% and CO₂ emissions by 43%, though it leads to notable imbalances between electricity production and consumption.
The Role of Different Applications of Photovoltaic Technologies in Large Scale Energy Systems
Enrico Dal Cin;Gianluca Carraro;Sergio Rech
In corso di stampa
Abstract
The energy sector is responsible for 73% of global greenhouse gas emissions, making it central to climate change mitigation. Among renewable technologies, solar PhotoVoltaic (PV) stands out for its scalability and cost-effectiveness, though its deployment is hindered by space constraints, intermittency in production and low energy density. Effective integration into large-scale systems requires tools that consider spatial availability, production-consumption mismatch, as well as the operational characteristics and costs of different potential applications of PV technology. This study evaluates various types of application of PV (rooftop, ground-mounted, agrivoltaics, and floating) within a large-scale energy system composed of thousands of users of different types across a wide geographical area. PV technologies may be coupled with Electric Energy Storage (ES) to enhance flexibility. The goal is to assess the energy generation potential, associated costs, environmental benefits, and impacts on the power grid of utilizing the available area for PV installation. To this end, a multi-objective optimization model is developed, minimizing total costs, CO₂ emissions, and electric production-consumption mismatch. Results demonstrate that exploiting the available surface areas for PV production can reduce total costs by 36% and CO₂ emissions by 43%, though it leads to notable imbalances between electricity production and consumption.
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