Advancing renewable energy community planning through integrated sector-coupling and economies of scale

As the world transitions towards renewable energy sources, optimizing energy sharing within communities has emerged as a key strategy for sustainability and cost-efficiency. In this paper, we present a comprehensive simulation model designed to optimize energy sharing among households and municipal buildings within a renewable energy community setting. Our model integrates various energy sectors, including electricity, heating, cooling, domestic hot water, and transportation, using a bottom-up approach and linear programming. Drawing upon existing frameworks and methodologies, we conduct a case study in a hypothetical small Italian community to demonstrate the potential of our simulation model in promoting energy efficiency and sustainability. We analyze the economic and environmental impacts of different energy optimization strategies in various scenarios, including sector coupling and collaborative energy sharing. Our findings reveal that integrating various energy demands and utilizing economies of scale in energy communities can lead to significant bill savings. With sector coupling alone, savings exceed 35 %, while combining sector coupling with energy sharing results in over 43 % savings, achieved without significantly increasing installed capacity, but with a more efficient distribution, which also reduces the total investment cost by around 32 % due to economies of scale.