Sind mehr Solarmodule immer besser?: Bewertung des kommunalen Kohlenstoffausstoßes

Are more solar panels always better in terms of carbon influence of a local energy community, and what is the impact of energy sufficiency? The answer is simple when the national electrical grid is taken as an infinite source of storage. However, this answer becomes more uncertain if we consider that exporting power to a larger grid at the national scale is not a desired option. Although this is a conservative hypothesis, it is considered for technical and social reasons. In doing so, load profiles become a key to evaluating the carbon impact of hybrid systems with solar panels plus storage units. To summarize the impact of any load profiles on the optimal sizing of solar panels, we propose a novel index denoted ‘natural self-sufficiency’. Our results show that not only reducing energy demand but also being more flexible significantly affects the carbon emissions related to solar panels.