ICE report T1.4 - A Community Specific Assessment of Local Energy

Abstract

This report builds on the output generated in ICE reports T1.1.1 and T1.1.2 to assess the current generation and demand characteristics for the two target sites: the island of Ushant off Northwest France and the University of East Anglia campus in Norfolk, England. Resource assessments are carried out for three renewable generation technologies: solar PV, wind and tidal stream (Ushant only). Included in the resource quantification are the estimated power that could be exported to the local grid and a comparison with the demand. As all three technologies are dependent on naturally variable resources and the times of generation cannot be controlled, an assessment on the correlation of generation times with consumption times is included. In addition to the raw resource availability a discussion of the technical, environmental and social constraints to deploying these technologies is included. Two other potential forms of renewable generation, biomass and wave power, are discussed briefly. The report finds that each renewable technology has the potential to provide electricity to the island’s grid. The time of day in which generation would occur however is not aligned with the current demand profile and installation of the technologies on their own would result in the need to curtail generation or dump energy. Installing a combination of wind, solar and/or tidal generation would enable the island to reduce the amount of electricity generated from fossil fuels. In order to maximise the amount of low-carbon energy used and make full use of renewable generation:  An energy storage solution should be installed  Energy reduction measures should be increased  Consumption behaviour should be altered so that times of use better correlate to times of generation. This work along with discussion of storage solutions and behavioural changes all support the development of the low-carbon innovative solution being prepared by the ICE project. The outputs from this report will feed in to the energy storage and network reliability studies being undertaken for ICE report T1.2 and the generalised methodology being developed for ICE reports T2.1 and T3.1.