Optimal multi-energy system design for the EnergyPolis Campus

According to the latest reports of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), tipping pointscould be overshoot between only 1 and 2°C [1, 2]. Therefore fossil-free solutions are needed rapidly,as put by Lenton et al.[3]: If current national pledges to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions are implemented — andthat’s a big ‘if’ — they are likely to result in at least 3°C of global warming. Thisis despite the goal of the 2015 Paris agreement to limit warming to well below 2°C.Some economists, assuming that climate tipping points are of very low probability(even if they would be catastrophic), have suggested that 3°C warming is optimal froma cost–benefit perspective. However, if tipping points are looking more likely, thenthe ‘optimal policy’ recommendation of simple cost–benefit climate-economy modelsaligns with those of the recent IPCC report. In other words, warming must be limitedto 1.5°C. This requires an emergency response— Climate tipping points, too risky to bet against (Nature, Nov. 2019) Interestingly, this master thesis can be described with the keywords and etymology of ecology andeconomy, who share the same greek prefix eco, which means house, and the suffixes logy:knowledge,and nomos:to manage/distribute. Herein, this thesis simulates the flows of masses and energiesthat are distributed inside and outside the buildings of the new Energypolis campus, comprised ofbuildings Industrie 19, 21, and 23. The Energypolis campus will host simultaneously an EPFL outpost and the HES-SO Valais-Wallis. As actors of Switzerland Innovation, they aim to bring Switzerland as an internationalinnovation leader [4]. Therefore, to heat the campus, a 5th generation CO2 energy network [5]will be implemented, to introduce a multi-energy infrastructure system that could bring cities toenergetic self-sufficiency [6, 7, 8]. After the first self-sufficient house in Switzerland[9, 10], thissystem will offer the possibility to see the synergies between different buildings and provide valuableinformation on the design of future energy networks. The equipment will complement an existingdistrict heating system, and will be sized to find the optimal trade of between investment cost andenergy autonomy. Hence this master thesis which will generate and evaluate alternatives designsfor the platform. This thesis as well as an automatic simulation results reader was written in R markdown[11],allowing for a better access, reproducibility, error avoidance, revisions[12], trackability and flexibility.