Profitability of PV sharing in energy communities: Use cases for different settlement patterns

Bernadette Fina, Hans Auer and Werner Friedl

Energy, 2019, vol. 189, issue C

Abstract: Many countries are changing their legislation to enable photovoltaic (PV) sharing beyond building boundaries. This work aims to investigate the profitability and optimal installation capacities of PV systems for energy communities (ECs) in comparison to individual buildings. To gain a wide spectrum of results, four characteristic settlement patterns with different building types are defined, ranging from urban to suburban and historical to rural areas. Analytically, a mixed-integer linear optimisation model is developed to maximise the net present value over a time horizon of 20 years. The results show that the profitability of implementing optimally-sized PV systems increases when forming ECs compared to the situation of considering buildings individually. The more different the load profiles, the more synergy effects, and the higher the cost saving potential. Consequently, a sensitivity analysis shows that taking into account large customers can increase the profitability of PV installation for the community significantly because large roof/facade areas are provided for optimal PV installation. In addition to a broad participant portfolio, a change in the technology set-up can have a positive influence. Battery- and hot water storage which complement PV systems and heat pumps can contribute to saving energy costs, if only marginally.

Keywords: Energy community; Settlement patterns; Building-attached/integrated PV; Net present value; Cost-optimal sizing of PV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (34)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219318432
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:189:y:2019:i:c:s0360544219318432

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.116148

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().