RenewIslands meets optimization: Efficient synthesis of renewable energy systems

An efficient synthesis method for renewable energy systems is presented that exploits synergies between heuristicand optimization-based approaches. For this purpose, the RenewIslands method has been integrated into a superstructure-based optimization approach. The resulting hybrid approach consists of two steps: First, heuristic-based equipment preselection identifies a set of promising candidate technologies. Next, the preselected technologies are employed in superstructure-based optimization to determine the optimal renewable energy system. The heuristic preselection systematically avoids excessively large superstructures, while the subsequent optimization ensures that the optimal solution is selected. The proposed method is applied to the case of Mljet Island, Croatia. Concepts for renewable energy systems are generated that require up to 59 % less investment costs compared to solutions derived by a classical simulation approach. At the same time, solution times are less than 2 minutes. The hybrid approach thus provides an efficient route to the synthesis of renewable energy systems.