Extending building integrated photovoltaics (BiPV) using distributed energy hubs. A case study in Cartigny, Switzerland

The integration of renewable energy technologies in the existing energy infrastructure plays a key role in improving the sustainability of cities. Due to the stochastic nature of some renewable energy sources, primarily wind and solar energy, direct integration into the grid is challenging. One solution is to use distributed multi-energy hubs which make it possible to intelligently integrate renewable energy sources into the grid and optimize resources. This paper presents an energy hub development and its integration in the Swiss village of Cartigny. Energy demand of buildings is estimated with CitySim Pro, hourly results are then exported to the microgrid simulation tool HOMER Pro to perform optimization, and system performance and lifecycle cost are evaluated under different BiPV capacities. The results for Cartigny show that relying entirely on renewable energies is not yet realistic due to their stochastic nature. They also show the importance of integrating daily and seasonal storage systems.