Assessment of Energy & Mobility synergies for city-scale hub design

Precisely predicting the future is an almost impossible challenge. However, predicting possible trend-lines is a more common thing. Current greenhouses gases emissions and climate change are among the most worrying issues humanity will face in a near future. To prevent this catastrophic scenario fromhitting us too hard, a global energy transition is ongoing. This transition aims (among other things) to decrease drastically the energy consumption of our buildings and mobility while supplying the demand via renewable sources. Within this thesis, a combined approach for energy and mobility modelling was followed, aiming to set guidelines for future hub design. To do so, an energy model was built to assess the energy demands and supply at the scale of the hub. The focus was on train stations, considering five case studies that differ in terms of electrical consumption, heating demand and traffic. The model allows to visualise the variations of the energy demands and supplies on an hourly basis, to design the associated conversion technologies, and to assess the synergies between those. Resolution under various scenarios and various case studies helped to define key technological solutions of future hubs, cost-wise and carbon-wise. Coupling between the national electricity network and the train network was implemented. Integration of the core hub in its local environment was studied, aiming to find synergies between the hub and its surroundings. Finally, applying what was learnt from simulations, optimisations and sensitivity analysis, the design of a possibly "good" and energy-efficient 2050 is suggested. Results show that large improvements are possible to retrofit current hubs to be more environmentally friendly and cost effective. Strong integration of solar PV, heat pumps and electric mobility (public and private) stand out as promising solutions to reach both cost and carbon emission targets, whatever the hub’s size. The use of stationary batteries was found to be very dependent on the electricity import prices and the carbon construction emissions of the storage. Promising synergies resulting in reduced specific carbon emissions were found when a shopping/office district was included in the hub. Finally, seasonal hydrogen storage based on renewable energy conversion stands out as a 2050 solution to cope with renewable fluctuation over the year.