Energy modelling is key in order to face the challenges of energy transition. There is a wide variety of modelling tools, depending on their purpose or study phase. This article summarises their main characteristics and highlights ones that are relevant when it comes to the preliminary design of energy studies at district scale. It introduces OMEGAlpes, a multi-carrier energy modelling tool to support stakeholders in the preliminary design of district-scale energy systems. OMEGAlpes is a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model generation tool for optimisation. It aims at making energy models accessible and understandable through its open-source development and the integration of energy stakeholders and their areas of responsibility into the models. A library of use cases developed with OMEGAlpes is presented and enables the presentation of past, current, and future development with the tool, opening the way for future developments and collaborations.

The energy transition is a multidisciplinary challenge that warrants solutions that are robust and sustainable. Energy flexibility, one of the key pillars of the energy transition, is an umbrella term that covers multiple innovative solutions implemented at all levels of the electric grid to ensure power quality standards, amongst other objectives. Low-tech, on the other hand, emphasizes designing, producing, and sustainably implementing solutions. Therefore, considering the multidisciplinary nature of energy transition and the existing energy flexibility solutions, the purpose of this research work is multilateral: first, it presents the concept of low-tech and its associated mechanisms; then, it addresses the misconceptions and similarities that low-tech might have with other innovation approaches; and finally, it provides an assessment of existing flexibility solutions using low-tech as a tool. The result of this assessment is presented qualitatively and indicates that indirect energy flexibility solutions rank higher on a low-tech scale relative to supply-side energy flexibility solutions and energy storage flexibility solutions.

Are more solar panels always better in terms of carbon impact for a local energy community, and what is the influence of energy sufficiency? The answer is simple when the national electrical grid is taken as an infinite source of storage. However, this answer becomes uncertain if we consider that exporting power at the national scale is not a desired option. Although this is a conservative hypothesis, it is considered for technical and social reasons. In doing so, load profiles become a key to evaluating the carbon impact of hybrid systems with solar panels plus storage units. To summarize the impact of any load profiles on the optimal sizing of solar panels, we propose a novel index denoted ‘natural self-sufficiency’. Our results show that not only reducing energy demand but also being more flexible significantly affects the carbon emissions related to solar panels.

Batteries for electric vehicles are becoming major assets against global warming. Their production is the most impactful life cycle phase and their sizing depends on the vehicle usage. However, these usages are neither representative nor even taken into account in most studies. The main reason is the lack of a representative mobility usage construction method. This paper aims to propose a method to build prospective, representative mobility usages. To do so, the method combines data from prospective scenarios in order to parametrize different typical trips. Results present the evolution of the travelled distance and times in function of the scenario chosen or the type of trips.