The idea of profitability and future scanning of solar photovoltaic (PV), is an approach that does not only imply energy generation using solar as renewable energy sources, but as a larger view of improving economy profitability. The economy profitability does not only mean saving cost as a result of producing parts of the energy needed for the fur farms activities but also includes the income savings derived by selling to the grid. This concept also supports the need to eradicate the use of fossil fuel and promoting renewable energy source in creating a sustainable energy environment with the use of solar photovoltaic. An approach to achieving a sustainable energy environment is to create more awareness in stimulating the use of renewable energy as a clean, reliable and cost efficient energy source than conventional fossil fuels [1].
In this study, an energy simulation tool is used to carry out the feasibility and profitability studies for the case of fur farms in Kaustinen, Finland. The simulation is conducted based on the solar energy production of the area and the result is integrated to analyze the electricity demand and energy cost savings for fur farms located at Kaustinen. However, the main concept of this study focuses on the recipient needs, activities and environment. Also, generating an amiable solution based on the recipient energy needs is of a priority in this study. Thus, achieving a sustainable energy environment that is profitable for all forms of policies in producing self-use electricity for fur farm activities sustainably with the use of solar energy source is essential. Due to variability of solar energy source, storage solution can be used to balance generation and to increase solar self-use, in particular, battery storage. This research will focus on integrating the solar electricity production to meet the electricity consumption. Also, a sensitivity analysis will be carried out with different PV and battery system sizes to know, which system size is a viable solution for both the current and future electricity.
This chapter further gives details on the research background, research aim and objectives, research questions, literature review and organization of the thesis.
1.1. Research Background
In previous and current fashion outlook, the fur skin from animals such as mink, fox, cat, dog, bear, raccoon to mention a few are worn for thermal comfort and traded as business commodity between countries [2]. According to the International Fur Federation (IFF) association in corporation with vogue Italian, on a global scale, fur has now been considered for all weather and all season clothing and not warmth only [3]. For this reason, the fur sectors has been working towards a high standard continually and this is not only limited to rebranding the outlook of the fur fashion and bringing nature closer to human, but also to ensure the energy use during the production stages are also environmentally sustainable [2].
It is a well-known fact that fossil fuel is the main fuel use for farms activities. It is used mostly for the feed processing, storage, transport and production. On a global scale, the electricity consumption of a farm for cooling, building facilities, transport and storage is highly dependent on the farm location and weather condition of the seasons [4]. To support the world in eradicating the hazardous effects of fossil fuel such as global warming which is diminishing the live span of the planet and also to reduce the depletion of natural resources for energy generation, there is need to amplify the use of renewable energy sources such as solar energy, wind, biomass to mention a few for sustainable energy production. For this reason, at Kaustinen, Finland, there is an amassed awareness of fur farmers who are interested in investing in renewable energy, in particular, solar energy, for self-use electricity production for their farms, so as to support the global targets of eliminating emissions and also to reduce their electricity purchase cost.
Apart from increased electricity price that could be presume to be a reason of investing in renewables, other vibrant reasons which could have triggered the investment is the fact that there are a lot of roofs with high solar potential, which has not been utilized and electricity consumption in the farming sector is expected to experience a linear growth due to new technology development. Also, solar PV is expected to be one the viable renewable energy technology that could be use in agricultural sector in the future to deal with greenhouse gas emission [5]. Hence, having a good awareness coupled with good political system will contribute largely to the lower costs and higher performance of solar photovoltaic in the future.
1.2 Research Aim
The aim of this study is to carry out simulation based analysis of solar PV technology for each of the fur farm at Kaustinen, Finland. The main purpose of this research is to determine the required solar PV system size suitable to meet the current and future electricity demand of each fur farm. To get a good analysis result there is need to choose the best places of the roof for solar PV installation, since the main energy source of the solar PV technology is the sun.
Another aim of this research is to determine battery potential of solar PV production to increase the self-use production so as to minimize excess production sold to the grid, and also to know the income savings when excess production is sold to the grid without the use of battery in simulating the PV size.
To achieve the aim of this research, some of the features of this research that will be addressed objectively are: examining the current electricity consumption rate of the fur farms, measuring the total rooftops area, estimating solar potential area of each rooftops, estimating the number of panels needed to cover the proposed solar rooftop area, identification of criteria suitable in dimensioning the solar PV performance and identifying the software reliable for executing the simulation.
1.3. Research Questions
The main research questions that will be treated in this study includes:
i. What is the maximum and sensitive roof area required for solar PV capacity for the current and future electricity consumption for the fur farms and food factory?
ii. What are the criteria for dimensioning the solar system sizes?
iii. How possible is it to meet the future electricity consumption of the farms with the use of solar PV system?
iv. How feasible would it be to consider all the fur farms as a single energy community?
v. How profitable is it to sell to solar energy to the grid?
1.4. Literature Review
Several renewable energy sources and the production technologies required for harnessing them are been exploited to generate the green and electrical energy needed for use. This exploitation is motivated due to detrimental health issues such as cancer which is claiming several lives as a
result of the use of conventional fuels. The pressing problem has increased the search for an alternative form energy to stimulate energy use. This chapter gives a comprehensive literature review which has been carried out within this research area. This chapter is divided into two sections. The first section gives a detailed literature review carried out regarding the use of solar energy in agriculture and the second section presents a literature review concerning the importance of policies, incentives or subsidies for solar PV investment in Finland.
1.4.1 Solar Energy Use and Agriculture
The day to day activities executed on the farm such as driving of the machines, cooling, feeding to mention a few requires the dire need of stable and reliable energy supply. Agricultural production requires substantial energy input. Currently, most of the fuel used to meet this energy demand is fossil fuel but the rising cost of fossil fuel and also the damaging effects of burning fossil fuel as promote the use of renewables to stimulate production, generate income, creates empowerment, social and economic development [6].
A lot of research has been conducted regarding the use of solar energy source for farm electricity use because it is; energy efficient, sustainable, of low investment risk and environmentally friendly amongst many others [6-8]. According to the reviewed journal articles, the application of solar energy for agriculture has a high potential in executing farm operation. They also emphasized on the advantages the farmers and the international community would get to benefit from using solar energy as the main energy source to reduce emissions in the atmosphere and combat with the effect of climate change. Apart from this environmental benefit and energy cost saving realized from the use of solar energy in agriculture, it will also help in rebranding the outlook of the agriculture platform from the well-known local and traditional practice to a modern prospect [8]. Also, Chel and Kaushik 2011 buttress on solar energy as an alternative form of energy for farm operation, as it requires low maintenance, reliable, long-life span and cost efficient to enhance agricultural productivity globally [9].
1.4.2. Role of Policy for Solar Photovoltaic in Finland
The solar PV market has experienced a remarkable growth in Europe, and most of the capacity is installed in Germany, which happens to be one of the leading countries in the solar PV market.
It is also part of the top 10 PV markets installation in 2016 after China, Unite State of America
and Japan. This is achieved as result of good supportive policy and incentive instruments. The feed-in tariffs has been a very good effective mechanism in promoting solar PV market. The country has a market installation of about 1.48 GW and it also a share of about 2 % in the global PV market in 2016 [10].
In Finland the market installed capacity is about 80.4 MW, which is still lower compared to the market installation in Germany. However, the PV market is anticipated to increase as Finland has an European Union target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and 80%
to 95% by 2050 [11]. Although, there have not been any governmental schemes to support PV systems in Finland. However, this story is changing as Finland plans to introduce a premium-based Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) auction, which will commence from autumn 2018 to foster the use of renewable electricity and this includes of solar PV system. The purpose of this auction is to achieve an electricity production target of 1.4 TWh/a from the renewable energy sources. Furthermore, the use of financial instruments to promote PV investment is also implemented by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Agency for Rural Affairs, and tax breaks to support people with investment of PV installation. Also, several municipalities have aims to install PV system on public buildings. In addition, in 2016, the grid-grid-connected PV capacity experienced an increase of about 150%, which is expected to double in 2018 [12]. Thus, from the literature review it can be drawn that governmental and financial support instruments will play a vital role in promoting PV market growth and making it a more viable technology in Finland.
1.5. Organization of the Thesis
This master’s thesis is made up of six chapters and it has follow the final thesis instructions guidance of Lappeenranta University of Technology, LUT. A brief overview of what each chapter entails is stated below and how it is arranged.
Chapter 1: This chapter presents the general overview of the study, background information of the study and relevant reasons for embarking on the research. Also, the aim and objectives, key research questions and literature review is presented in this section.
Chapter 2: This chapter gives detailed information on the methodological approaches employed to develop a calculation model in this research and the reasons. It provides
information on how the data used in this study were collected and furthermore gives a description of the study area, the solar PV plant area. It also explains the rooftop use for solar PV and how it is measured, the characteristics of the system use in this study and the software selected for the simulation.
Chapter 3: A descriptive review of each fur farm including the food factory was given in this chapter. After the collection of the data and when all necessary measurements had been taken for all the rooftops considered, some sensitivity analysis results was carried out for both the current and future scenarios for each farm including the food factory based on the selected dimensioning criteria.
Chapter 4: This chapter analyzed the electricity consumption data and solar PV production output for the entire energy community for both southwest and southeast direction and the result is presented for current and future scenarios.
Chapter 5: This chapter expresses the profitability key parameters used in this study and analyses the income saving results for each farm, the food factory and community energy state for both current and future cases.
Chapter 6: This is the final chapter and it gives a summary of the research and also a concluding statement. It also review the research aim and questions to ensure the thesis was able to achieve and deliver the main cause of embarking on the research.