Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Architecture engineering
Abstract
The aggregated fuel cost of domestic hot water (DHW) generation in Ireland, in 2022, was €529M with associated emissions/load of 1.3MtCO2/289GWh. The shadow price of carbon monetises the negative impact of emissions, rising with time; DHW generation has an associated shadow carbon cost of €13M in 2022, rising to €42M in 2030 and €335M in 2050.
In 2020, c12%/€441M of wind was curtailed or wasted as inter alia, there was no demand at times of high wind. Meanwhile, a ‘silent crisis’ is occurring in Ireland wherein one-in-two dwellings were considered in fuel poverty in 2022. Households in fuel poverty are known to limit DHW generation, impacting hygiene and well-being.
As most Irish households have an electrical immersion already installed in DHW tanks, this research develops a preliminary (first round) wind allocation model to assess the potentials and economics of redeploying excess wind to heat DHW and, in the interest of a just-transition, focuses on households at risk of fuel poverty.
It is found that fuel-poor households in Ireland could be theoretically provided with a ‘free’ full tank of hot water, once in every 3 weeks, redeploying 89% of overnight curtailed wind energy in 2019, realising a potential carbon cost saving to the Irish state of c€4M in 2030, rising to c€11M in 2050 along with a better quality of life for fuel-poor citizens.
This research concludes this massive, readily deployable, shared, citizen-owned dispatch-down resource should be utilised and further research into redeployment of dispatch-down as a service is merited.
DOI
https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4566515
Recommended Citation
Ahern, Ciara and Oliver, Ronán, Sustainability Matchmaking: Exploration into Using Excess Renewable Energy to Deliver ‘Free’ Energy to Fuel Poor Homes – a Preliminary Case Study in Ireland. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4566515 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4566515
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Publication Details
Energy and Buildings (SSRN Platform)
https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4566515