The need to limit climate change has led to policies that aim for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Often, a trade-off exists between reducing emissions and associated costs. In this paper, a multi-objective optimization framework is proposed to determine this trade-off when operating a Community Energy Storage (CES) system in a neighbourhood with high shares of photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation capacity. The Pareto frontier of costs and emissions objectives is established when the CES system would operate on the day-ahead spot market. The emission profile is constructed based on the marginal emissions. Results show that costs and emissions can simultaneously be decreased for a range of solutions compared to reference scenarios with no battery or a battery only focused on increasing self-consumption, for very attractive CO2 abatement costs and without hampering self-consumption of PV-generated electricity. Results are robust for battery degradation, whereas battery efficiency is found to be an important determining factor for simultaneously decreasing costs and emissions. The operational schedules are tested against violating transformer, line and voltage limits through a load flow analysis. The proposed framework can be extended to employ a wide range of objectives and / or location-specific circumstances.

In this research, the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction potentials of electric vehicles, heat pumps, photovoltaic (PV) systems and batteries were determined in eight different countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain. Also, the difference between using prosuming electricity as a community (i.e., energy sharing) and prosuming it as an individual household was calculated. Results show that all investigated technologies have substantial GHG emission reduction potential. A strong moderating factor is the existing electricity generation mix of a country: the GHG emission reduction potential is highest in countries that currently have high hourly emission factors. GHG emission reduction potentials are highest in southern Europe (Portugal, Spain, Italy) and lowest in countries with a high share of nuclear energy (Belgium, France). Hence, from a European GHG emission reduction perspective, it has most impact to install PV in countries that currently have a fossil-fueled electricity mix and/or have high solar irradiation. Lastly, we have seen that energy sharing leads to an increased GHG emission reduction potential in all countries, because it leads to higher PV capacities.

Urban environments can be key to sustainable energy in terms of driving innovation and action. Urban areas are responsible for a significant part of energy use and associated greenhouse gas emissions. The share of greenhouse gas emissions is likely to increase as global urban populations increase. As over half of the human population will live in cities in the near future, the management of energy supply and demand in urban environments will become essential. Developments such as the transformation of the electricity grid from a centralised to a decentralised system as well as the electrification of the transportation and heating systems in buildings will transform the urban energy landscape. Efficient heating systems, sustainable energy technologies, and electric vehicles will be critical to decarbonise cities. An overview of emerging technologies and concepts in the built environment is provided in this literature review on the basis of four main areas, namely, energy demand, supply, storage, and integration aspects. The Netherlands is used as a case study for demonstrating evidence-based results and feasibility of innovative urban energy solutions, as well as supportive policies.

This study investigates the technical and financial potential of an aggregation of residential heat pumps to deliver demand response (DR) services to the Dutch Frequency Containment Reserve (FCR) market. To determine this potential, a quantitative model was developed to simulate a heat pump switching process. The model utilizes historical frequency and heat pump data as input to determine the optimal weekly bid size considering the regulations and fine regime of the FCR market. These regulations are set by the Dutch Transmission System Operator (TSO). Two strategies were defined that can be employed by an aggregator to select the optimal bid size; the ‘always available’ scenario and the ‘always reliable’ scenario. By using the availability and reliability as constraints in the model, the effects of TSO regulations on the potential for FCR are accurately assessed. Results show a significant difference in bid size and revenue of the strategies. In the ‘always available’ scenario, the average resultant bid size is 1.7 MW, resulting in €0.22 revenue per heat pump (0.5kW_p) per week. In the ‘always reliable’ scenario, the average resultant bid size is 7.9 MW, resulting in €1.00 revenue per heat pump per week on average in the period 03-10-2016–24-04-2017. This is based on a simulation of 20,000 heat pumps with a total capacity of 1 MWp. Results show a large difference in potential between the two strategies. Since the strategies are based on TSO-regulations and strategic choices by the aggregator, both seem to have a strong influence on the financial potential of FCR provision. In practice, this study informs organizations that provide FCR with knowledge about different bidding strategies and their market impact.