Effects of Carbon Taxation, Distributed Generation and Electricity Storage Technologies on a Microgrid

Distributed generation along with combined heat and power production and electricity storage technologies can offer important benefits from economic but also environmental point of view. Carbon taxation has a serious impact on the function of a Microgrid. This analysis uses the Distributed Energy Resources - Customer Adoption Model to meet file annual load of an existing hotel in Athens choosing the optimal combination of installed technologies and their operating schedule. The installation of reciprocating engines and lead acid batteries contributes to a cost saving up to 25% and a reduction in carbon emissions up to 10%, using a realistic carbon tax and under ideal circumstances. Various scenarios with different carbon taxes and available technologies were executed. The installation of photovoltaic systems appears more economical when the carbon tax increases significantly. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecominons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Euro-Mediterranean Institute for Sustainable Development (EUMISD)