Supporting the Clean Electrification for Remote Islands: The Case of the Greek Tilos Island

Abstract

Many islands around the world present considerable energy supply problems, while their energy mixture is controlled by oil products. Meanwhile, several of these isolated islands enjoy excellent RES potential that support actions to maximize RES integration. In order to ameliorate energy supply security and energy autonomy of the Aegean Archipelagos Greek islands, an integrated solution is deployed based on the exploitation of the existing RES potential in conjunction with the application of an appropriate energy storage scheme, as well as complementary smart-grid elements. The proposed solution has been applied for the Greek Tilos island in the framework of the Tilos-Horizon 2020 program. In this context, the implementation of the integrated Tilos energy solution under the current local legislative frame is a great success story introducing several important innovative characteristics in the European market, like the combined operation of a wind turbine and a PV installation, the application of new technology battery energy storage, the installation of a DSM network/platform and the development of a large number of reliable forecasting algorithms. The innovative integrated solution is a real-world working operating example offering knowledge and proving that the solution deployed could be equally well applied in various other remote islands throughout the European territory with very promising results.