Self-sufficient renewable energy supply in urban areas: Application to the city of Seville

This paper proposes a methodology that, using only publicly available information, assesses the capacity of urban agglomerations to be self-sufficient and energy sustainable. The methodology evaluates the potential of the urban surface to accommodate thermal and PV solar facilities, as well as the energy storage requirements on a year-round basis. When applied to the city of Seville, considering not only the current electricity demand but also the one arising from the electrification of both urban transport and the entire thermal energy currently supplied by gas, the conclusion is that it is possible to have a self-supplied energy system based almost exclusively on PV and thermal panels. Given the high cost of seasonal storage, the resulting system is economically unviable, so it makes sense to keep the transmission grid as a back-up system to feed power into the city at certain times of the year (up to 8% of annual consumption). In the case study, the renewable energy comes mainly from PV facilities roof-mounted (72%), or ground-mounted in the surrounding urban lots (25%), plus a modest contribution from biogas (wastewater). A discussion is included regarding the role of regulated utilities, that should be reconsidered in the light of these upcoming scenarios.