Solar Irrigation Pumps (SIPs) are used to pump (ground and surface) water to irrigate farm lands. In a country with a historical mismatch of energy supply and demand, and almost 120 million families dependent on earnings from agriculture (Prachi Salve, 2014), SIPs offer great prospects. Unlike electric and diesel pumps – dominating the market till today – SIPs have almost zero marginal costs. This leads to extra crop production at negligible costs and also generation of electricity when not being used for pumping. Due to almost zero emissions, it simultaneously addresses the issue of climate change hence bringing prosperity to the population at all levels.SIPs are a new phenomenon in India and due to the comparatively1 high capital costs, SIPs require subsidies to make them affordable for a farmer. Support in the form of subsidies has been given to around 15,000 farms in the whole country. By introducing solar pumps on a subsidy scheme in 2009-2010, Rajasthan has become the pioneer state of India. Since then numerous solar pumps have been deployed and farmers have gained experience with their usage. These farmers appear to be happy with the functioning of the pumps; 95% of the farmers, who gained enough knowledge to answer the question, say that the pump works better than their diesel or electric pump. A surprising finding is that the project cost per pump is getting higher while the pumps are getting cheaper. This means that the government is using more money to run the project. To find the reasons for the rising project costs and to find a way to decrease them, further research is needed. If the project cost could be decreased more pumps could be supplied with the same amount of subsidy.It was also found that the SIPs were not successful in replacing the electric and diesel pumps. The diesel and electric pumps had more horse power (hp) so were able to pump more water resulting in irrigation of more land in the same amount of time. Farmers expressed they could fully switch to SIPs when more powerful pumps were supplied.Because the present SIPs are off grid systems, it is not possible to sell the excess electricity that is not needed for pumping water. Because there are no marginal costs, there is no incentive for switching off the machines either. The consequence is excessive pumping of water leading to groundwater depletion. An important improvement would be to connect these pumps to the electricity grid. The possibility to earn some money with delivering energy would probably be a good reason to stop needless pumping.The subsidy program that was in place in Rajasthan had an 86% capital subsidy (the farmer had to pay only 14% of the price of SIP). With the available money only 10,000 pumps per year could be supplied (Dr. Dinesh Kumar Goyal, 2013). When the subsidy per pump is decreased more pumps could be deployed and it was shown that even with a lower subsidy getting a SIP will still be attractive.One of the points of improvement for a quick roll out of SIPs might be found in the way these pumps are financed. Pumps have a high capital cost and are currently financed by 70-90% capital subsidies of the government. The amount of total subsidy is limited and so with a high percentage of subsidy a small amount of pumps are deployed by this subsidy. These subsidies could be dramatically reduced when a loan/lease product would be put in place. Without a bank loan farmers are unable to pay the major part of the capital cost of the pump. Offering a bank loan is a win-win situation for the farmers and the people of India, represented by the government. With these pumps farmers are able to sell electricity to the grid and earn extra income or they can sell water to other farmers for a price below the price of current diesel pumping. With this income they could pay off the loan in 7 years and earn a reasonable income. The people of India will not only benefit by having to pay less for subsidies, they will also benefit from less greenhouse gas emissions as solar has almost zero emissions compared to mainly coal based electricity pumps and diesel pumps.SIPs supplying electricity can have a big effect on grid stability. Hence, in chapter 6 the question of grid stability was raised. Under what conditions can the Indian grid deal with a large amount of electricity injected from SIPs. India currently has 70% of the electricity produced from coal power plants while 3% comes from Nuclear power plants (Trading Economics, 2011a). These sources have a response time of several hours which is not quick enough to respond to fluctuations in the demand of energy by for example households, or a change in production by other sources, for example solar. The present sources should be partly replaced by quick response sources like the renewable sources and gas turbines. Currently 6% of the installed capacity is a gas power plant (Central Electricity Authority, 2015) but this percentage should be increased. Also other solutions should be implemented, such as developing storage of energy and more interconnections between grids of states and other countries.Since the idea is that SIPs would not use electricity from the grid anymore unlike electric pumps, 25% of electricity currently used from the grid by agriculture will be less. The current electric pumps only get electricity for certain hours a day and are used to balance the grid, only at times of low electricity use of other users, farmers will get electricity. When the electric pumps are replaced by SIPs that do not use electricity from the grid the balancing function that the electric pumps currently fulfil will no longer be present. Having no experience with SIPs connected to the grid so far, it will be difficult for the state load dispatch centres, which manage the grid, to schedule the expected load. Hence, pilots should be set up to find out how these pumps are used throughout the day so that in the future these loads can be predicted. In Gujarat the solar installed capacity could easily be a fivefold without having to invest in extra capacity of quick responsive sources, since enough installed capacity of gas turbines is already in place but currently not used. Extra investment would be needed in the grid in order to be able to transmit so much electricity over the grid from the (distributed) solar plants.Solar irrigation pumps, when implemented correctly, can not only lead to much cheaper irrigation for farmers but also less groundwater depletion and a source of extra income. Solar pumps can lead the way to more prosperity for the Indian people, but new guidelines and plans have to be made by the government to realise this potential. Without policy changes as described in this thesis SIPs benefit a small number of lucky farmers at the expense of the larger whole (wasting public money and groundwater).

The joint European electricity production in 2022 was 2.9 PWh where 34.3% of the electricity came from sources of natural gas and coal. However, to be able to achieve the goals of the Paris agreement, greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 and thus call for a rapid decarbonatization. For this, using less energy originating from fossil sources and increasing the use of renewable energy is crucial. One way to decentralize and implement renewable energy is using energy communities. This is also a way for actors to participate in energy trading and to enable collective ownership of local production and storage technology. However, since the electricity grid in Sweden is largely outdated, this poses as a problem for continued electrification. To evaluate if decentralisation of the electricity distribution and production can minimise the load on the national grid, The research institute of Sweden (RISE) has initiated pilot studies to assess the possibility and impact of introducing energy communities in Sweden with the help of KTH for simulations. As part of such a pilot study this thesis focuses on a district in Örebro named Tamarinden, where it is planned to implement a local DC-network to allow sharing of locally PV produced electricity. Through using the Python package Panda Power as well as quantitative analyses in Excel, the thesis aim was to propose a configuration of the standard local distribution grid and analyse the impact from PVs, battery storage as well as the DC-network focusing on grid stability and solar penetration. In addition, an economic feasibility analysis was made. The results showed that an energy community greatly impact the solar penetration and that grid stability improvements could not be determined. This could be due to the choice of production technology, solar PV, as these have peak production during low demand season. Furthermore, a proposition for the local grid configuration was constructed. Nevertheless, the economic feasibility showed that even though the impact on PV penetration is great, the cost of the technology is too high in comparison to savings made in terms of lowered electricity demand. In conclusion, the implementation of such an energy community in Sweden is currently unbeneficial from an economic point of view. / Den europeiska elproduktionen var år 2022 2.9 PWh var av 34.3% härstammade från kol och naturgas. För att uppnå målen i Parisavtalet måste växthusgasutsläppen sluta öka senast 2025 därför krävs snabb avkarbonisering. För att åstadkomma detta måste användandet av fossila energikällor minska och användandet av förnyelsebar energi öka. Ett sätt att möjliggöra denna omställning är genom energigemenskaper. Detta är även ett sätt för aktörer att delta i energimarknaden samt att möjliggöra kollektivt ägarskap av lokal produktions och lagrings teknologier. Då elnätet i Sverige till stora delar är utdaterat skapar detta problematik, för en fortsatt elektrifiering. För att utvärdera huruvida decentralisering av eldistributionen och elproduktionen kan minska belastningen på det nationella distributionsnätet, driver Research institute of Sweden (RISE) tillsammans med KTH pilotstudier för att undersöka möjligheterna och påverkan av att introducera energigemenskaper i Sverige. Som en del av en av pilotstudierna fokuserar denna uppsats på en stadsdel i Örebro som heter Tamarinden, där det är planerat att implementera ett lokalt DC-nätverk för att möjliggöra delning av lokalt producerad el. Genom modellering i Pythons paket Panda Power och kvantitativa analyser i Excel, var uppsatsens mål att presentera en möjlig konfiguration av lokalnätet samt att analysera påverkan från solceller, batteri lagring samt DC-nätverket på nätstabiliteten och solpenetrationen. Ytterligare gjordes en ekonomisk genomförbarhetsanalys. Resultaten visade att en energigemenskap kraftigt påverkar solpenetrationen och att förbättringar av nätstabiliteten inte kunde fastställas. Detta kan bero på valet av produktionsteknik, solceller, eftersom dessa har topproduktion under lågsäsong. Dessutom konstruerades ett förslag för den lokala nätkonfigurationen. Den ekonomiska genomförbarheten visade dock att även om effekten på solcellspenetrationen är stor är kostnaden för tekniken för hög i jämförelse med besparingar i form av sänkt efterfrågan på el. Sammanfattningsvis är genomförandet av en sådan energigemenskap i Sverige för närvarande ofördelaktigt ur ekonomisk synvinkel.

With increasing intermittency from renewable energy production, such as solar and wind power, the need for increased flexibility is quickly arising. The Åland Islands have an ambitious energy transition agenda with the goal of having a 100 % renewable energy system. Since there is no possibility of hydropower acting as regulatory power on Åland, reaching the goal is a challenging task. Increasing flexibility can be achieved by either implementing energy storage in the system or by matching the demand with the production.   The purpose of this study was to estimate and evaluate the technical potential of demand response (DR) on Åland, both in 2019 and for a scenario in 2030 when domestic production of wind and solar have increased. Six areas of interest were identified; electric heating, refrigeration processes, lighting, ventilation and air conditioning, electric vehicles and industries. Electricity import from Sweden to Åland was examined since high import coincides with either low domestic renewable production or high consumption. Import is therefore a good indicator for when flexibility is most required.  The results show that the technical potential of DR on Åland can lower the maximum electricity import from Sweden by 18 % in 2019. 4.3 % of the total import can be moved to times when there is less stress on the grid. Electric heating is the biggest contributor, and can by itself lower the import with three fourths of the total reduction. The domestic renewable production for 2019 is too low for DR to have an effect on the self-sufficiency. In 2030, the self-sufficiency and utilization of domestic renewable production could be increased with 4.2-9.9 % and 5.4-12 % respectively when using DR, depending on if vehicle-to-grid is implemented on a large scale or not. The cost of implementing DR is still uncertain, and varies between different resources. Nonetheless, DR in electric heating is presumably a less expensive alternative in comparison to batteries, while providing a similar service.