Towards an Eco-City Future: A Renewable Energy Supply and Smart Mobility Symbiosis

摘要

Taking into account that Brazil possesses 84% of its population living in cities and that transportation constitutes a significant portion of the urban cost matrix, balancing city growth, energy consumption and transportation including maintenance and operation of the road system) represents a great challenge to be overcome. Though 65.2% of the Brazilian electricity mix is based on hydropower, the country has faced strong unfavorable hydrological conditions. This research hence had the overall objective of investigating solar energy potential to supply renewable energy for residential and public transportation end-uses. The method comprised a general analysis of the city of Londrina, in Brazil, and an indirect quantitative relational methodology of data constitution for computing energy consumption and generation potential. We followed the ‘ecosystem approach’ on sustainable urban development to establish present and future residential energy consumption scenarios for the studied city. Our calculations showed that, when the whole urban perimeter is occupied, installing PV arrays on 10% of the residential roof surface would produce a 75% energy surplus that, if added to PV generated by adoption of a massive local renewable energy production (MassREP) system, Londrina would be able to also supply a new, renewable electricity-powered smart mobility transportation system.