A sustainable mobility strategy based on electric vehicles and photovoltaic panels for shopping centers

The transition from conventional centralized energy production to a distributed one may represent one of the solutions to reduce greenhouses emissions. The present work aims at proposing a novel approach for energy and environmental issues, related to the high density of vehicular traffic for shopping centers by introducing photovoltaic panels and electric vehicles into the energy system. In order to achieve such goal a specific case study was developed for the main shopping centers located in the Campania Region, South of Italy. Two wellknown simulation platforms, EnergyPLAN and TRNSYS, were purposely integrated. TRNSYS is used to develop a dynamic model of a shopping and the outputs were used as EnergyPLAN inputs to evaluate the role that this sustainable layout can play within the different sectors. Environmental, energy and economic analyses are performed for three different scenarios including the baseline one at 2019, 2030 and 2050. The proposed system can cover about 45.7 % of the shopping centre electric demand. At a regional scale, in the 2050 scenario the yearly reduction of CO2 and energy consumption are 42.0 kt and 160.0 GW h, respectively. The economic results show a SPB (Simple Pay Back) of 2 years and a PI (Profit Index) of 5.4.

Automated summary

The study proposes a new method of introducing photovoltaic panels and electric vehicles into shopping centers to address energy and environmental issues. Through a case study in the Campania Region of Italy, it was found that the system can cover a certain percentage of electricity demand.