On-site renewable electricity production and self consumption for manufacturing industry in Ireland: Sensitivity to techno-economic conditions

The technical and economic feasibility of on-site renewable energy production from solar and wind for a specific manufacturing plant in Ireland is assessed. The energy load of the plant during a typical year is identified through the analysis of gas and electricity consumption, based on internal monitoring and billing information. Solar and wind potentials are modelled for a period of 22 years using historical meteorological data. The distributed system is sized based on the physical limitations of the site and the effect on the net demand is calculated. As expected, solar and wind energy are generally decoupled. The solar energy presents a more predictable daily and seasonal trend; the wind system introduces a high variability on the net demand. Based on this real case study, a model is implemented to simulate the economic viability of the installation in different scenarios by assessing the influence that technical and economic input parameters have on the Net Present Value. Thus, it is possible to find the conditions in which the project would be viable and evaluate the needed economic policies and/or technical improvements to move in that direction. It is concluded that while a technical opportunity does exist, the economic conditions necessary (specifically, reduction in initial cost of investment, significant subsidy, and long payback period) to make on-site renewable generation a viable option in manufacturing industry in Ireland are too onerous to make it attractive.