Using Urban Building Energy Models for the Development of Sustainable Island Energy Systems

Abstract

This study evaluates the use of City Energy Analyst, an urban building energy modelling tool, to design zero-carbon energy communities in low-industry isolated island settings. The research aims to test the effectiveness of the software during the development of sustainable energy systems in isolated microgrids and compares it with the widely used tool EnergyPLAN. The goal of the study focused on making a community self-sustainable, considering the rooftop area available in the populated settlements to install photovoltaic systems and distributed storage capacity. With this purpose in mind, the evaluated tool estimated the energy consumption of each building and the respective total annual consumption of Corvo Island, a location that is naturally isolated and dependent on fossil fuels. The results demonstrated that City Energy Analyst is an innovative tool to estimate energy consumption and potential energy generation of photovoltaic systems in a remote location, providing additional features to a traditional model and motivating further development of the associated plug-in. However, it requires initial time-consuming efforts to build a reliable model. As a complement, EnergyPLAN can be used to enhance the design, with the integration of the local existing and potential generation sources and to confirm the stability of the overall energy system. This tool introduced additional wind capacity and centralized storage into the model, testing the balance of the system. Therefore, the study proposes a framework combining the strengths of both tools to measure island energy systems, as they can complement each other, to build a strong analysis model.