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Solar Self-Sufficient Households as a Driving Factor for Sustainability Transformation

Author

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  • Franz Harke

    (Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics, Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Philipp Otto

    (Institute of Cartography and Geoinformatics, Leibniz University Hannover, 30167 Hannover, Germany
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

Abstract

We present a model to estimate the technical requirements, including the photovoltaic area and battery capacity, along with the costs, for a four-person household to be 100% electrically self-sufficient in Germany. We model the hourly electricity consumption of private households with quasi-Fourier series and an autoregressive statistical model based on data from Berlin in 2010. Combining the consumption model and remote-sensed hourly solar irradiance data from the ERA5 data set, we find the optimal photovoltaic area and battery capacity that would have been necessary to be self-sufficient in electricity from July 2002 to June 2022. We show that it is possible to build a self-sufficient household with today’s storage technology for private households and estimate the costs expected to do so.

Suggested Citation

  • Franz Harke & Philipp Otto, 2023. "Solar Self-Sufficient Households as a Driving Factor for Sustainability Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-20, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:3:p:2734-:d:1055857
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