Impact of distributed energy resources investment capacities on the carbon footprint of renewable energy communities

This paper investigates how distributed energy resources investment capacities impact the carbon footprint of a renewable energy community. The investigation is conducted through the formulation of an optimisation problem minimising an economic (cost) and an environmental (carbon footprint) objectives. It considers new investments and the carbon intensity of energy from the grid. It provides results for grid users acting alone, forming a renewable energy community but investing alone, or allowing co-investment in the community. Multiple case studies are tested to compare the effects of different tariffs and investment budgets. Various locations for renewable energy communities are also tested to see the limitations for profitability depending on the local solar intensity and carbon emission of the external electricity mix. The principal ideas are to demonstrate: that the community framework can reduce the carbon footprint of the system, that a community framework increases the benefits and that an energy bill minimization for all members (maximizing self-consumption) provides an efficient proxy for minimizing carbon footprint.