Modeling and Optimization of a Longitudinally-Distributed Global Solar Grid

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the feasibility of fulfilling global energy demand primarily through solar energy by simulating a longitudinally-distributed grid with detailed models of houses, appliances, and regional data, and optimizing solar panel deployment.

Contribution

It develops a comprehensive simulation framework integrating various tools and models to analyze a global solar energy grid and proposes optimization methods for solar panel placement.

Findings

Simulation shows potential for global solar energy fulfillment.

Effective models for grid components and regional data are developed.

Optimization identifies optimal solar panel areas for different locations.

Abstract

Our simulation-based experiments are aimed to demonstrate a use case on the feasibility of fulfillment of global energy demand by primarily relying on solar energy through the integration of a longitudinally-distributed grid. These experiments demonstrate the availability of simulation technologies, good approximation models of grid components, and data for simulation. We also experimented with integrating different tools to create realistic simulations as we are currently developing a detailed tool-chain for experimentation. These experiments consist of a network of model houses at different locations in the world, each producing and consuming only solar energy. The model includes houses, various appliances, appliance usage schedules, regional weather information, floor area, HVAC systems, population, number of houses in the region, and other parameters to imitate a real-world scenario. Data gathered from the power system simulation is used to develop optimization models to find the optimal solar panel area required at the different locations to satisfy energy demands in different scenarios.