Geographic information systems are well established tools for the identification of potentials and the selection of optimal locations for installing renewable energies. A high and increasing number of studies present indicators of resource availability such as the amount of available biomass, average wind speed, cumulated solar radiation and soil temperature. These studies range from the determination of merely theoretical resources potentials to combined technical, economic, environmental and social studies of the suitability of energy generation technologies (e.g. wind parks, photovoltaic installations and biogas/biomass facilities) and they have reached high spatial detail.
However, the consideration of the temporal variability of the energy demand and of highly fluctuating sources, such as wind and solar radiation, is a fundamental element that has been addressed only marginally in GIS-based approaches. The consideration of these fluctuations, however, is paramount to evaluating and designing spatially distributed energy systems with a high share of renewable sources. GIS-based models extended by the temporal dimension can be used inter alia to:
• dimension distributed renewable energy systems such as virtual power plants
• analyse interactions and proportions of renewable energy power plants in distributed renewable energy systems
• assess extreme production events and associated backup mechanisms
• calculate peak load offsetting and output variability reduction technologies for grid connected and off-grid renewable energy systems
• size and locate decentralized storage facilities
• plan multicarrier systems (heat-electricity, heat-cooling-electricity)
• assess impacts of the choice of locations on a wide set of indicators which can be linked to both system stability as well as environmental and land-use issues
The objective of the session is to provide an insight in recent advances in GIS-based modelling for addressing the above mentioned topics. The session is not limited to planning related contributions, but also welcomes papers dedicated to policy-making, forecasting and real time applications concerning distributed renewable energy systems.