Novel Energy System Design Workflow for Zero-Carbon Energy District Development

The growing urban population globally leads to higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and stress on the electricity networks for meeting the increasing demand. In the early urban design stages, the optimization of the urban morphology and building physics characteristics can reduce energy demand. Local generation using renewable energy resources is also a viable option to reduce emissions and improve grid reliability. Notwithstanding, energy simulation and environmental impact assessment of urban building design strategies are usually not done until the execution planning stage. To address this research gap, a novel framework for designing energy systems for zero-carbon districts is developed. An urban building energy model is integrated with an urban energy system model in this framework. Dynamic prediction of heating and cooling demand and automatic sizing of different energy system configurations based on the calculated demands are the framework's primary capabilities. The workability of the framework has been tested on a case study for an urban area in Montreal to design and compare two different renewable energy systems comprising photovoltaic panels (PV), air-source, and ground source heat pumps. The case study results show that the urban building energy model could successfully predict the heating and cooling demands in multiple spatiotemporal resolutions, while the urban energy system model provides system solutions for achieving a zero-carbon or positive energy district.