Designing Nearly Zero Energy Buildings: a Recommendation Tool for Optimal Sizing of Renewable Energy Source Systems

One of the main objectives of the United Nations towards sustainable energy consumption and production is the design and retrofit of buildings to be considered nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB). In this paper, a user-friendly tool that provides recommendations on the most suitable Renewable Energy Source (RES) and Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) combinations and sizes for the consider building is proposed. Based on the answer to a few simple questions, the tool aims to propose the RES-BESS system that maximizes the building's self-consumption, thus minimizing the required investment to get a nZEB. An implementation of the first prototype is presented. Preliminary performance results are promising and show that significant savings can be achieved.