Replicability study of the DEMO4 format of the REMOTE project at the Fjellbygda

The rapid rise in temperatures due to the greenhouse effect is increasingly stimulating the scientific community to look for new ways of meeting energy needs through the production of energy from renewable sources with zero emissions. The management of the energy produced by these sources, especially the excess energy produced during periods of high resource availability and low demand, represents a challenge that is as urgent and interesting as minimising losses in energy distribution and making energy available even in the most remote places. Solutions to these issues are necessary in order for everyone to be able to meet their needs in societies that demand more and more energy (especially in electrical form) and that realised the necessity of a sustainable use of natural resources. The aim of this thesis is to make a contribution in this sense, acting in collaboration with the Norwegian company Tronderenergi, by defining the possibility of reproducing in a new fictitious remote site in northern Norway, a solution for the production and storage of energy from renewable sources on the model devised by the European, Polito led, REMOTE project, which is being carried out in Rye through its first test in these days. In particular, hydrogen production and the use of lithium batteries are identified as methods for storing excess energy production, and solar photovoltaics and wind power are identified and evaluated as production methods for systems at high latitudes. Simulations were carried out by defining the objective function algorithm on MATLAB software and solving the optimization problem using the Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm already available as built in MATLAB function. Since the study is undertaken in the context of evaluating the convenience of installing the system for off-grid energy production rather than expanding the capacity of an existing hypothetical 1.5MW grid, the minimization of the energy price (LCOE) has been used as objective function to provide the optimal plant sizing. The main purpose of the plant will be therefore to cover the load hypothetically required by users during every hour of the year. The achievement of this aim has been explored through the adoption of various formats that include in some cases also the intervention of the aforementioned network (considering it both as a source and as a possible purchaser of the excess energy produced) up to considering the case of complete independence from the grid (format originally envisaged by the REMOTE project). The study was carried out by considering different reference years for the calculation of the potential energy extractable from renewables and by considering 2 different load scenarios. These differed in the amount of maximum demand required by referring to a current load demand and one assessed as an increase in energy demand. In order to demonstrate the impact at the level of greenhouse gases emissions, the results showed the quantity of emissions avoided thanks to the adoption of this system and the energy produced by it rather than the use of energy available on the grid produced by the national energy mix. In particular, the results for the country of analysis (Norway, with a national mix that is already almost entirely renewable) and that of an average EU country were differentiated. The results also include the values of waste heat energy from the use of the fuel cell available for hypothetical uses not explored in this thesis.