A Practical Methodology for Building a Municipality-Led Renewable Energy Community: A Photovoltaics-Based Case Study for the Municipality of Hersonissos in Crete, Greece

Emmanuel N. Efthymiou, Sofia Yfanti, George Kyriakarakos, Panagiotis L. Zervas, Panagiotis Langouranis, Konstantinos Terzis and George M. Stavrakakis ()
Additional contact information
Emmanuel N. Efthymiou: MES Energy S.A. Branch Office, 1821 Str. No.76, 71201 Heraklion, Greece
Sofia Yfanti: Division of Environment and Agricultural Production, Municipality of Hersonissos, Eleftherias Str. No.50, 70014 Hersonissos, Greece
George Kyriakarakos: Institute for Bio-Economy and Agri-Technology (iBO), Centre for Research and Technology-Hellas (CERTH), 6th km Charilaou-Thermi Rd, Thermi, 57001 Thessaloniki, Greece
Panagiotis L. Zervas: MES Energy S.A., Aiolou Str. No.67, 10559 Athens, Greece
Panagiotis Langouranis: MES Energy S.A., Aiolou Str. No.67, 10559 Athens, Greece
Konstantinos Terzis: MES Energy S.A., Aiolou Str. No.67, 10559 Athens, Greece
George M. Stavrakakis: MES Energy S.A. Branch Office, 1821 Str. No.76, 71201 Heraklion, Greece

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 19, 1-31

Abstract: This paper presents a practical methodology to facilitate decision-making for the development of a renewable energy community (REC) in the municipality of Hersonissos in Crete, Greece. The impact of energy sharing produced from renewables through direct or indirect citizen participation presents an enormous opportunity to strengthen energy democracy and to alleviate energy poverty. Triggered by the latter being amongst the most essential goals for implementing policies towards low-carbon economies at the local level, the current study presents a step-by-step methodology to facilitate decision-making for building a municipality-led REC. Initially, potential sites and alternative sittings of photovoltaic (PV) plants are explored for detecting the optimal installation with respect to technical and possible legislative restrictions. The best REC business model is then selected based on a SWOT analysis, complemented with a detailed techno-economic analysis of the foreseen investments. According to the design calculations, the optimal PV plants/business-model option that emerged may achieve impressive environmental and economic benefits, i.e., reducing the municipality’s annual electricity-induced CO 2 emissions and electricity expenses by at least 68.40% and 594,461.54 €, respectively.

Keywords: renewable energy sources; photovoltaics; renewable energy community; municipality-led energy community; virtual sharing; informed decision-making; energy transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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