Empowering Consumers within Energy Communities to Acquire PV Assets through Self-Consumption

Abstract

The use of photovoltaic energy (PV) and the involvement of residents within energy communities are becoming increasingly important elements of decentralized energy systems. However, ownership structures are still too complex to empower electricity consumers to become prosumers. We developed a token-based system of the gradual transfer of PV ownership rights, from the initial investor to residential and small-scale commercial consumers. To demonstrate the system, we set up a simulation of a 27-party mixed usage building with different load profiles, ranging from single student apartments to office units with battery electric vehicles, in a German energy community. As a result, we show that the proposed system design is economically viable for all involved stakeholders over the simulation horizon from 2022 to 2036, with a payback time of <5 years, 4 years to distribute 50% of the PV tokens, and an overall self-consumption share of 69%.

Keywords

• photovoltaic energy
• energy communities
• prosumer
• energy tokens
• smart contract
• blockchain