WebGIS Open-source Platform for Localizations of New P2G Plants in Sicily

Abstract

The climatic emergency that involves the globe has led targets of greenhouse gas reduction in the EU and all over the world. In this scenario, recent advances in renewable renewable energy sources (RESs) have focused interest on the diffusion of power supplies that are produced by photovoltaic and wind plants. The non-programmable nature of these energy sources has led recent studies to consider the power-to-gas (P2G) solution as an opportunity for employing the curtailed electric energy by converting it into hydrogen. The localizations of P2G plants depend on several factors regarding power production, distances, and population distributions. The necessity of integrating these factors led this work to study the development of a cost function that is hosted by a web-based GIS (geographic information system) platform, thus allowing for the storage, elaboration, and web fruition of an entire data set that is related to the possible new localizations of P2G plants. The structure is based on open-source technology and creates a solution that is easily employable by specialists. The developed platform is composed of different remotely connected blocks that are solely based on open-source technology and is focused the interest on the territory of Sicily (Italy). GIS software, a RDBMS database, a geospatial server (Geoserver), a Python optimization module, and a WebGIS visualizer are integrated. This work represents a scientific contribution to the management of energy sources, with a particular focus on policies that are based on hydrogen technology. In fact, different data sets that contain several levels of information that are related to the management and the localization of P2G plants will be even further employed in the future.