Grant: Alliance Grants

This NSERC Alliance research proposal considers the future evolution of clean (i.e. decarbonized) remote electrification in Canada. Diesel-engine-based generators are the de-facto solution to for providing electric power within remote communities in Canada, and indeed around the world. In the Canadian context alone there are over 250 remote communities that currently depend on diesel-based electricity to provide what is now an essential service of community electrification. However, due to dramatic cost reductions and market availability of fossil-fuel-free sources of clean energy generation, namely solar and wind generation technologies, there is enhanced interest in applying solar and wind technologies within remote community applications to reduce diesel fuel consumption. The proposed research project broadly investigates pathways for significantly decarbonizing remote community electrification systems in the context of remote communities scattered across Canada. The research proposed consists of two work packages. The first work package looks at improving the renewable energy fraction and performance of solar powered stand-alone residential Nano-Grids by advancing towards combination lithium battery and low-cost thermal energy storage systems. The second work package explores broader opportunities for community-scale Micro-Grid decarbonization by investigating the complimentary nature of wind and solar, distributed low-cost thermal storage, electricity tariffs and optimized system controls in an attempt to eliminate diesel fuel consumption in its entirety.