A Model-Based Approach to Decarbonize an Island’s Energy System

Case Study on the Island of Föhr, Germany

Abstract

To achieve climate goals and contain further global warming, it is inevitable to reduce CO₂ emissions especially in energy consumption. A way to do so is by integrating renewable energy sources (RES) into an energy system’s power generation. However, there is no standard procedure to decarbonise a locally restricted system. Therefore, the various local conditions have to be analysed and taken into consideration.

The authors propose a model-based approach to decarbonise the energy system of the island Föhr, Germany. This includes various collected data sets on local conditions such as climate data and heat and power demand. The data is used to represent the island’s energy system and design a model-based solution in a simulation software.

The authors identify potentials by comparing costs and revenues by addressing the deployment of different RES technologies. One finding is that heat generation causes 91 % of CO₂ emissions making it the major producer. However, with the designed solution, emissions could be reduced to a third.