Improving Energy Sustainability of Suburban Areas by Using Distributed Energy Systems: A Case Study

The building sector plays a vital role in Switzerland’s climate policy. In order to support the energy transition in the building sector, Rolle, a suburban area located along the shore of Lake Geneva is considered in this study to understand the promising future scenarios for integration of renewable energy technologies. The area is clustered into 12 clusters and distributed energy system is designed for each cluster. Subsequently, three energy systems having contrasting densities are taken for further comparison to understand the impact of urban density on the design of the distributed energy system. The study reveals that urban density will influence the peak as well as the annual energy demand of the energy hubs. The study reveal that the energy technologies used in the energy hubs are strongly influenced by the capacity of the system (peak and annual energy demand). Energy systems having higher capacities are less sensitive to the market changes when compared to the systems having lower capacities (leading to sparse suburban areas).