Optimal vehicle selection in the design of urban energy systems: An integration of the private transport and building energy sectors

Abstract

An optimization model has been built to select the optimal combination of vehicle technologies, charging and building system technologies for a group of 52 buildings and 82 cars in Switzerland. The multi-objective optimization reduces both total costs and total emissions and performs both a selection of vehicle, building, charging and storage technologies as well as operation over one year. The car selection chooses from internal combustion engine, hybrid, battery electric, and fuel cell vehicles. The building optimization can select a combination of gas-boilers, fuel cells, heat pumps, and electrolysers to enable meeting both heating demands, electricity demands, and vehicle demand requirements. The results indicate that both heat pumps and battery vehicles are the lowest cost technologies that significantly reduce carbon emissions; however, there are cases where fuel cell vehicles and hybrid vehicles may be a better alternative depending on charging and driving requirements.