Applications and Implementations

Chapter 1

Abstract

renewable energy

1. Introduction

3

Microgrids: Applications,

Demonstrations

Edward J. Donahue

Solutions, Case Studies, and

provide climate control and hot water and where power production is

Keywords: microgrid, urban development, cogeneration, trigeneration,

bution of resources, and a marked decline in public health [7].

job opportunities for those who are most in need.

Rapid urbanization of the world's population is creating great sociological, environmental, and structural strains on the cities where people are moving to. Housing is becoming scarce and expensive, while the need to build new housing is placing great burdens on existing infrastructure—especially local power grids. It will be shown that integrating urban development around a microgrid concept would greatly alleviate the problems associated with urbanization. Incorporation of a microgrid, based on a cogenerating power station where waste heat is used to

supplemented with renewable energy sources, would effectively remove the development from the local grid and greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, this model can accommodate any combination of large-scale residential, commercial, or industrial developments to revitalize the local neighborhood and can do so at a level of profit that would allow for lower rents, creating housing and

Urbanization has occurred throughout history as agricultural societies evolve [1, 2]. The concentration of population (Pop.) leads to a specialization of labor, allowing individuals to concentrate their efforts into fields where they have a particular aptitude. This inevitably leads to the rise of some type of market economy in which one trades upon the skills possessed to fulfill needs in areas outside of one's chosen field of endeavor. Urbanization historically has led to greater overall prosperity in the long term [3–6]. However, immediate consequences are more varied and lead to the "known evils" of city life: poverty, slums, an uneven distri-

The historical trend toward urbanization is continuing and accelerating into the present. The world population has grown dramatically in the past 75 years and has become increasingly urbanized. The total population of the planet grew by 148% between 1960 and 2017 and by 42% in the roughly quarter century between 1990 and 2017 [8]. During that same quarter century period, the urban population of the planet grew at almost double the rate of the overall population, increasing by 83%
