FEASIBILITY ANALYSIS FOR THE DECARBONISATION OF A DECENTRALISED GRID SYSTEM: A CASE STUDY FOR THE ISLAND OF FUERTEVENTURA, SPAIN

Abstract: Decarbonisation of different energy sectors of society is becoming a pressing issue globally withnumerous legislations and objectives being set to decarbonise electrical grids worldwide. Somehave already been met; however, islanded grids still heavily rely on fossil fuels to meet their electrical demand due to the weakness of their grid and limited available space forcing them to use space-efficient technologies such as diesel generators. This is the case of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands (Spain) which produces 80-90% of its electricity from fossil fuels. This study will analyse the feasibility of decarbonising the electrical grid of Fuerteventura using a decentralised grid system with wind, solar, and battery storage to achieve 100% renewable generation. To select the best hybrid energy system for the case study, a 9-step methodology has been presented and followed in which both descriptive (qualitative) and quantitative data have been used to provide the background knowledge of the study and the inputs for the analysis which is done using the microgrids optimisation model HOMER. The analysis aims to understand the grid and renewable resources on the island to later develop the different scenarios to be reviewed. The three different scenarios, wind-battery, solar-battery, and wind-solar-battery were modelled and simulated using the latest HOMER software. Results showed reduced LCOE and capital costs in the wind-solar-battery scenario compared to the wind-battery and solar-battery scenarios due to increased use of wind and lower capacity of installed batteries needed. Space availability was shown to be a problem for the scenarios using wind as the turbines would occupy 5% of the islands surface. Environmental and visual impacts would also be noticeable under the wind-battery and wind-solar-battery scenarios as the entire island is a Biosphere Nature Reserve and is a well-known touristic destination for natural virgin beaches. Additionally, the results showed that all 3 scenarios had excess electricity values above 50% of the total electrical production and still experienced some capacity shortages. To solve this, diversification of the generation and storage facilities, implementation of DSM (Demand side management) and V2G (Vehicle-to-grid), and interconnection of the islands is proposed with the latter being the most realistic solution. The study concludes the wind-solar-battery is the most technological and economically feasible solution although several issues need to be addressed for a similar project to be implemented on a real island.