Decarbonisation of Geographical Islands - The role of Solar, Wind and Biomass

Islands are limited by geographical constraints with reference to energy production and transportation. The EU-funded ROBINSON project aims to develop a versatile self-sustainable decarbonized energy system that can be introduced on segregated island regions. Three European islands are being addressed in the project (Eigerøy – Norway, Crete – Greece, Western Isles – Scotland). The feasibility of renewable electrification and heating system decarbonization of Eigerøy in Norway is described in this article and compared with the island of Crete. A mixed-integer linear programming framework was used for modelling. Onshore/Offshore wind farms and utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) were considered for renewable electrification. All of them were found to have conditions for which their deployment was reasonable. The heating system, composed of a biomass gasifier, a combined heat and power system with a gas boiler as backup unit, was also analyzed. Parameters were identified in which the combination of all three thermal units represented the best system option.