Preparing the Massive Introduction of Intermittent Energies and Electric Vehicles in Insular Territories: First Steps in Martinique and in Malta

Malta and Martinique are two islands using fossil fuels for their production of electricity and for their mobility. Energy transition towards a carbon-free economy is programed in Martinique for 2030. This will require a lot of changes but, fortunately, both territories benefit from an excellent solar resource giving the possibility of producing electricity with photovoltaics. Institutions from these two similar insular territories, Martinique Electricity Board and the academic research group MCAST Energy from Malta, allied with CEA, the French Atomic Energy and Renewable Energies Commission, to define a path from the present state towards a massive use of photovoltaics in roofs and a totally electric mobility. The proposed method was to analyse the present situation, to assess the major technical issues for the energy transition and then to define an operational research programme. The main result of the analysis was that in both territories the available solar resource and surface on roofs for photovoltaics should allow the production of enough electricity for the new electric mobility, supposing the installation of new energy storage capacities. The main issues would be then a) at the territory level, the balance of supply and demand of electricity (managing flexible loads and energy storage at every time scale), b) at the low voltage grids level, the management of voltage and signal quality, and c) the management of domestic loads and of the charge of electric vehicles. The proposed research program is a) to size and simulate the management of the energy storage at the territory level using irradiance data; b) to model the management of the charge of electric vehicles; c) to setup a real scale demonstrator of a complete low voltage grid of the future, with a full introduction of electric mobility and of photovoltaics on roofs.Includes poster presentation