Agent-based simulation for renewable energy incentive design

In this thesis, we propose a novel approach to model the diffusion of residential PV systems. For this purpose, we use an agent-based model where agents are the families living in the area of interest. The case study is the Emilia-Romagna Regional Energy plan, which aims to increase the produc- tion of electricity from renewable energy. So, we study the microdata from the Survey on Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) provided by Bank of Italy in order to obtain the characteristics of families living in Emilia-Romagna. These data have allowed us to artificial generate families and reproduce the socio-economic aspects of the region. The families generated by means of a software are placed on the virtual world by associating them with the buildings. These buildings are acquired by analysing the vector data of regional buildings made available by the region. Each year, the model determines the level of diffusion by simulating the installed capacity. The adoption behaviour is influenced by social interactions, household’s economic situation, the environmental benefits arising from the adoption and the payback period of the investment.

Isolated electrical microgrids employing renewable energy resources:analysis of the electrification of remote communities in Peru.

This project points out a brief overview of several concepts, as Renewable Energy Resources, Distributed Energy Resources, Distributed Generation, and describes the general architecture of an electrical microgrid, isolated or connected to the Medium Voltage Network. Moreover, the project focuses on a project carried out by GRECDH Department in collaboration with CITCEA Department, both belonging to Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya: it concerns isolated microgrids employing renewable energy resources in two communities in northern Peru. Several solutions found using optimization software regarding different generation systems (wind and photovoltaic) and different energy demand scenarios are commented and analyzed from an electrical point of view. Furthermore, there are some proposals to improve microgrid performances, in particular to increase voltage values for each load connected to the microgrid. The extra costs required by the proposed solutions are calculated and their effect on the total microgrid cost are taken into account; finally there are some considerations about the impact the project has on population and on people's daily life.

CFD Applications for Wave Energy Conversion Devices (MoonWEC) and Turbulent Fountains for Environmental Fluid Mechanics

This thesis is based on two studies that are related to floating wave energy conversion (WEC) devices and turbulent fountains. The ability of the open-source CFD software OpenFOAM® has been studied to simulate these phenomena. The CFD model has been compared with the physical experimental results. The first study presents a model of a WEC device, called MoonWEC, which is patented by the University of Bologna. The CFD model of the MoonWEC under the action of waves has been simulated using OpenFOAM and the results are promising. The reliability of the CFD model is confirmed by the laboratory experiments, conducted at the University of Bologna, for which a small-scale prototype of the MoonWEC was made from wood and brass. The second part of the thesis is related to the turbulent fountains which are formed when a heavier source fluid is injected upward into a lighter ambient fluid, or else a lighter source fluid is injected downward into a heavier ambient fluid. For this study, the first case is considered for laboratory experiments and the corresponding CFD model. The vertical releases of the source fluids into a quiescent, uniform ambient fluid, from a circular source, were studied with different densities in the laboratory experiments, conducted at the University of Parma. The CFD model has been set up for these experiments. Favourable results have been observed from the OpenFOAM simulations for the turbulent fountains as well, indicating that it can be a reliable tool for the simulation of such phenomena.

WEC-Sim Application for the Assessment of Wave Energy Generation in the Tyrrhenian Sea and the North Sea Through the 2-Body Point Absorber (2BPA) and the Oscillating Surge Wave Energy Converter (OSWEC)

In recent years, developed countries have turned their attention to clean and renewable energy, such as wind energy and wave energy that can be converted to electrical power. Companies and academic groups worldwide are investigating several wave energy ideas today. Accordingly, this thesis studies the numerical simulation of the dynamic response of the wave energy converters (WECs) subjected to the ocean waves. This study considers a two-body point absorber (2BPA) and an oscillating surge wave energy converter (OSWEC). The first aim is to mesh the bodies of the earlier mentioned WECs to calculate their hydrostatic properties using axiMesh.m and Mesh.m functions provided by NEMOH. The second aim is to calculate the first-order hydrodynamic coefficients of the WECs using the NEMOH BEM solver and to study the ability of this method to eliminate irregular frequencies. The third is to generate a *.h5 file for 2BPA and OSWEC devices, in which all the hydrodynamic data are included. The BEMIO, a pre-and post-processing tool developed by WEC-Sim, is used in this study to create *.h5 files. The primary and final goal is to run the wave energy converter Simulator (WEC-Sim) to simulate the dynamic responses of WECs studied in this thesis and estimate their power performance at different sites located in the Mediterranean Sea and the North Sea. The hydrodynamic data obtained by the NEMOH BEM solver for the 2BPA and OSWEC devices studied in this thesis is imported to WEC-Sim using BEMIO. Lastly, the power matrices and annual energy production (AEP) of WECs are estimated for different sites located in the Sea of Sicily, Sea of Sardinia, Adriatic Sea, Tyrrhenian Sea, and the North Sea. To this end, the NEMOH and WEC-Sim are still the most practical tools to estimate the power generation of WECs numerically.