Abstract The optimal design of distributed generation systems is of foremost importance to reduce fossil fuel consumption and mitigate the environmental impact of human activities in urban areas. Moreover, an efficient and integrated control strategy is needed for each of the components of a distributed generation plant, in order to reach the expected economic and environmental performances. In this paper, the transition from natural gas to electricity-based heating is evaluated for residential applications, considering the interplay between photovoltaic electricity produced on site and the thermal energy storage, to grant the optimal management of heating devices. The energy demand of an apartment building, under different climatic conditions, is taken as a reference and four power plant solutions are assessed in terms of energy cost and pollution reduction potential, compared to a baseline plant configuration. The performance of each power plant is analyzed assuming an optimized control strategy, which is determined through a graph-based methodology that was previously developed and validated by the authors. Outcomes from our study show that, if heat pumps are used instead of natural gas boilers, energy costs are reduced up to 41%, while CO 2 emissions are reduced up to 73%, depending on the climatic conditions. Our results provide a sound basis for considering the larger penetration of photovoltaic plants as an effective solution towards cleaner and more efficient heating technologies for civil applications. The simultaneous utilization of heat pumps (as substitutes of boilers) and photovoltaic panels yields a positive synergy that nullifies the local pollution, drastically cuts the CO 2 emission, and guarantees the economical sustainability of the investment in renewable energy sources without subsidiary mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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光伏生产、热泵和热能储存在住宅应用中的智能集成

摘要 分布式发电系统的优化设计对于减少化石燃料消耗和减轻城市地区人类活动对环境的影响至关重要。此外，分布式发电厂的每个组件都需要有效的集成控制策略，以达到预期的经济和环境性能。在本文中，考虑到现场产生的光伏电力与热能储存之间的相互作用，评估了住宅应用从天然气到电力供暖的过渡，以实现供暖设备的最佳管理。公寓楼在不同气候条件下的能源需求，作为参考，与基准电厂配置相比，在能源成本和减少污染潜力方面对四种电厂解决方案进行了评估。假设优化的控制策略分析了每个发电厂的性能，该策略是通过作者先前开发和验证的基于图形的方法确定的。我们的研究结果表明，如果使用热泵代替天然气锅炉，能源成本最多可降低 41%，而 CO 2 排放量最多可减少 73%，具体取决于气候条件。我们的研究结果为考虑将光伏电站的更大渗透作为实现民用应用更清洁、更高效加热技术的有效解决方案提供了良好的基础。