First Approach to a Holistic Tool for Assessing RES Investment Feasibility

Abstract

Combining availability, viability, sustainability, technical options, and environmental impact in an energy-planning project is a difficult job itself for the today’s engineers. This becomes harder if the potential investors also need to be persuaded. Moreover, the problem increases even more if various consumptions are considered, as their patterns depend to a large extent on the type of facility and the activity. It is therefore essential to develop tools to assess the balance between generation and demand in a given installation. In this paper, a valuable tool is developed for the seamless calculation of the integration possibilities of renewable energies and the assessment of derived technical, financial and environmental impacts. Furthermore, it also considers their interaction with the power grid or other networks, raising awareness of the polluting emissions responsible for global warming. Through a series of Structured Query Language databases and a dynamic data parameterization, the software is provided with sufficient information to encode, calculate, simulate and graphically display information on the generation and demand of electric, thermal and transport energy, all in a user-friendly environment, finally providing an evaluation and feasibility report.