Integration of sustainable Multi-Energy-hub Systems at neighbourhood scale (IMES)

This project will develop and provide a comprehensive simulation approach for decentralized power production, which tackles at the same time technical, economic and social issues.

by Weekly Spotlight on Energy Research

The challenges posed by the nuclear phase-out planned in the Swiss Energy Strategy 2050 could be solved by coupling renewables with flexible, centralised fossil-fuel based power plants. However, this would lead to (i) a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions, thus losing some of the renewable benefits, and (ii) to issues related to public acceptance. A promising solution is decentralized power production based on renewables and natural gas coupled with energy storage.

IMES project aims to establish a new methodology to evaluate decentralized power production solutions and formulate techno-economic decision guidelines for implementation of decentralized power production integrating renewable energy sources, natural gas-based micro-cogeneration and storage (power-to-gas and batteries).

The guidelines will also contain recommendations concerning ways in which neighborhood-scale power production should be optimally implemented today and in the future, which technical, economic and social barriers have to be overcome, and where innovation is required in order to bring distributed power generation to the market. Knowledge sharing and cross-fertilisation of ideas will provide a platform for new approaches to such decentralised power production.

Figure_IMES
Flickr.com/NASA/CC BY-NC 4.0

More details about the project are available.

The ESC members involved in this project are:

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