Governments and utility organizations around the world have mandated and provided incentives for new distributed renewable energy generation (DREG) capacity, and market projections indicate strong growth in distributed renewable energy generation installations in the coming years. New distributed renewable energy generation utilities, by definition, will be primarily located in built environments near consumers; these utilities are often planned and designed by landscape architects, yet no evidence-based, distributed renewable energy generation research is explicitly done by landscape architects or recognizes the role landscape architects play in planning and designing these spaces. The research and analysis provided by this study indicates that distributed renewable energy generation lacks a strong foundation as an independent concept which could benefit from clear broad phraseology linked to organized sub-terms/phrases for specific forms of DREG, that there has been some research done on topics familiar to landscape architects, that more needs to be done to meet important research questions and recommendations already posed, and that landscape architects are positioned to contribute to future distributed renewable energy generation research.

The use of renewable energy has proven to be essential for the decarbonisation of the energy system, bringing changes on both the production and consumption side, with an increase of renewable energy in the mix and a change in the role of consumers. From passive actors, Consumers are becoming Prosumers (producers and consumers) of self-generated energy, with the potential of becoming the pillar of the energy sector transition. The European Union set ambitious goals for the realization of a low carbon society by 2050, giving birth to several energy related initiatives. From a regulatory perspective, Europe is indeed paving the way for an internal energy market revolution, that sees the introduction of new actors among which, Local Energy Communities (LEC). In the progressive transition from a centralized to a decentralized system with intelligent and interconnected production sources, consumers are allowed to produce, store, share or resell their energy directly or as energy cooperatives, and can manage demand either independently or through aggregators. In this context Energy Communities take shape. In accordance with the definition given in the European RED directive "Renewable Energy Directive", this study refers to energy communities as a set of energy users who, through cooperatives, non-profit associations, or other legal forms, make common decisions for the satisfaction of their energy needs, with the aim of providing environmental, social and economic benefits. The overall objective of the study is to gain a better understanding of the environmental, grid and social impacts of local energy communities, as well as of the factors that can potentially enable or inhibit the deployment of such communities. The emergence of prosumers and energy communities raise new challenges in terms of technologies and technical requirements for the interaction with the electricity grid, in terms of the need for new business models and new energy policies and regulatory framework, to encourage these new configurations and unlock their benefits as effectively as possible. In the context of this work, a model for the assessment of LECs viability has been built; it examines the consumption and renewable generation loads, with the possibility to measure the effects of adding a battery storage system in the community configuration. The profitability of residential customers participating in a LEC is investigated for four different technological community scenario: (i) solely stand-alone PV plant (ii) stand-alone PV plant with the addition of a solar battery for self-consumption maximization (iii) stand-alone PV plant with the addition of a battery storage system for Demand Side Management behind-the-meter and (iv) stand-alone PV plant with the addition of a battery storage system for Demand Side Management front-of-the-meter. The economic impact of storage on LEC energy usage has been studied while considering the technical aspects of the proposed system. The simulation analysis – based on real residential demand profiles, renewable generation curves, battery energy storage functioning, market pricing and incentives scheme, showed that energy sharing and collective investment in residential scale renewable assets and batteries can be economically feasible, but the economics can significantly fluctuate with changes in parameters such as technology cost, LECs incentives, electricity prices, and that therefore the convenience of one scenario over the others should be verified each time the conditions change. Also, the type of services for which the battery can get revenues may disrupt the conclusions reached. The aim of the work, however, was to build a model easily adaptable to the variation of these parameters, in order to calculate case by case economics and convenience of any possible community configuration. / Användningen av förnybar energi har visat sig vara avgörande för att minska koldioxidutsläppen från energisystemet, vilket medför förändringar både på produktions- och konsumtionssidan, med en ökad andel förnybar energi i mixen och en förändrad roll för konsumenterna. Från att ha varit passiva aktörer blir konsumenterna nu Prosumers, producenter och konsumenter av egenproducerad energi, med potential att bli en pelare i övergången inom energisektorn. Europeiska unionen har satt upp ambitiösa mål om att förverkliga ett samhälle med låga koldioxidutsläpp senast 2050, vilket har gett upphov till flera energirelaterade initiativ. Ur ett regleringsperspektiv banar Europa verkligen väg för en revolution på den inre energimarknaden, där nya aktörer kommer att introduceras, bland annat lokala energikommuner. I den gradvisa övergången från ett centraliserat till ett decentraliserat system med intelligenta och sammankopplade produktionskällor får konsumenterna producera, lagra, dela eller sälja sin energi direkt eller som energikooperativ, och de kan hantera efterfrågan antingen självständigt eller genom aggregatorer. I detta sammanhang tar energisamhällen form. I enlighet med definitionen i det europeiska direktivet om förnybar energi i den här studien avses med energisamhällen en grupp energianvändare som genom kooperativ, ideella föreningar eller andra juridiska former fattar gemensamma beslut för att tillgodose sina energibehov, i syfte att skapa miljömässiga, sociala och ekonomiska fördelar. Det övergripande målet med studien är att få en bättre förståelse för de miljömässiga, nätmässiga och sociala konsekvenserna av lokala energisamhällen, samt för de faktorer som kan möjliggöra eller hindra införandet av sådana samhällen. Framväxten av prosumenter och energisamhällen ger upphov till nya utmaningar när det gäller teknik och tekniska krav för samverkan med elnätet, när det gäller behovet av nya affärsmodeller och ny energipolitik och regelverk för att uppmuntra dessa nya konfigurationer och frigöra deras fördelar på ett så effektivt sätt som möjligt. Inom ramen för detta arbete har en modell för bedömning av LECs lönsamhet byggts upp. Den undersöker förbrukning och belastning från förnybar produktion, med möjlighet att mäta effekterna av att lägga till ett batterilagringssystem i samhällskonfigurationen. Lönsamheten för privatkunders deltagande i ett LEC undersöks för fyra olika tekniska samhällsscenarier: (i) enbart fristående solcellsanläggning, (ii) fristående solcellsanläggning med tillägg av ett solcellsbatteri för maximering av självförbrukningen, (iii) fristående solcellsanläggning med tillägg av ett batterilagringssystem för styrning av efterfrågan bakom mätaren och (iv) fristående solcellsanläggning med tillägg av ett batterilagringssystem för styrning av efterfrågan framför mätaren. Lagringens ekonomiska inverkan på LECs energianvändning har studerats samtidigt som de tekniska aspekterna av det föreslagna systemet har beaktats. Simuleringsanalysen - som i skrivande stund bygger på verkliga efterfrågeprofiler för bostäder, kurvor för förnybar produktion, batterilagringens funktion, marknadens prissättning och incitamentssystem - visade att energidelning och kollektiva investeringar i förnybara tillgångar och batterier i bostadsområden kan vara ekonomiskt genomförbara, men att ekonomin kan fluktuera avsevärt med förändringar i parametrar som teknikkostnader, incitament för LEC:s och elpriser, och att det därför är lämpligt att kontrollera om det är fördelaktigt att välja ett scenario framför de andra varje gång förhållandena förändras. Även den typ av tjänster som batteriet kan få intäkter för kan påverka de slutsatser som dras. Syftet med arbetet var dock att bygga en modell som lätt kan anpassas till variationen av dessa parametrar, för att från fall till fall beräkna ekonomin och bekvämligheten hos alla möjliga konfigurationer av samhället.

In the summer of 2007, a single neighbourhood in downtown Toronto contributed at least 13 percent of all residential grid???tie solar photovoltaic (PV) systems sold in the Canadian province of Ontario. On average, PV purchaser households produced 37 percent as much electricity as they consumed. This research investigates solar energy adoption in a community case study. Specifically, it investigates why some residents who sign up for a solar resource assessment through a community solar energy initiative (CSEI) decide to purchase, and others decide not to purchase in the short???term. Characteristics and perceptions of potential adopters are analyzed to better understand their motivations and barriers to adoption. Community energy projects became an official public policy goal in Ontario, with the passing of the Green Energy and Green Economy Act in 2009. Approximately 80 percent of Ontario???s anticipated generation capacity will need to be built, replaced or refurbished within 15 years. In this context, the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Ontario Power Authority, and Deloitte (one of Canada???s leading professional services firms), have partnered with a ???green benefit??? fund, the Community Power Fund, to help local community groups access resources to develop and establish renewable energy projects. Understanding solar energy adoption in a community context is therefore important to improve the effectiveness of such policies, including the disbursement of multi???million dollar grant funds. Differences between purchasers and non???purchasers in respect of adoption behaviour were found in this study to cluster around two general themes. The first theme concerns differences in compatibility of both the concept of solar energy systems, and their physical attributes, with characteristics of potential adopter households. Some compatibility issues are straightforward, e.g. availability of roof space with a southern orientation. Others are more complex, involving several interrelated perceptual and socio???demographic factors. For instance, while both purchasers and non???purchasers rated cost as a very important barrier, purchasers rated the motivation of solar energy systems to reduce climate change higher relative to the barrier of high financial costs than did non???purchasers. Purchasers were also more likely to possess a graduate degree, while non???purchasers were more likely to hold a professional degree. The second general theme relates to potential adopters??? trust and stake in the ability of the community???based initiative to reduce barriers in the adoption process. Since two types of solar energy systems are considered in the case study???PV and thermal (hot water)???differences are explored between each of three respondent groups: solar PV purchasers, solar hot water (SHW) purchasers, and non???purchasers. iv Surveys were used to gather data on adopter perceptions and characteristics. A participatory research design helped identify the research topic. Two main bodies of literature???community???based social marketing (CBSM) and diffusion of innovations theory???were drawn upon to conceptualize the adoption process and interpret the survey findings. These include five models of human behaviour that can be used to guide the design of CBSM campaigns. Diffusion theory was used as a basis for discussing ???perceived innovation attributes???. The study takes an integrated approach by considering both social and technical aspects of solar energy adoption, together with the issues of fuel substitution and household electricity demand.