The energy transition is driving the adoption of local renewable energy production. Decentralised renewable plants enable citizens to play an active role in generating and managing energy supplies. In Europe, recent policies are promoting Renewable Energy Communities (RECs), which consist of aggregations of end-users aiming to produce and share renewable energy, generating and managing cost-effective energy supply chains autonomously. A comprehensive analysis of REC potential requires tools that integrate socio-economic, environmental, and spatial evaluations for renewable energy assessment. The objective of this study is to present the current status and capabilities of tools for REC modelling. This paper reviews twelve energy modelling tools which have the potential for the evaluation of RECs. The review structure follows the steps of a REC assessment process, which is structured in background, inputs, simulation or optimisation and outputs. Technical, economic, and environmental aspects of REC projects should be included without leaving behind the spatialisation and geographical planning of the new energy systems. Findings reveal that the co-existence of multiple criteria is not satisfied in any of the current tools, as most of them mainly analyse a few areas of interest and partially consider other aspects. The comparison reveals that the energy and financial outputs are mainly deepened. Meanwhile, environmental and spatial criteria have a marginal role among both inputs and outputs. Finally, software marginally spatializes the workflow steps except for CEA and URBANopt, which are revealed to be the most complete options for REC design.

中文翻译：

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用于评估可再生能源社区的建模工具

能源转型正在推动当地可再生能源生产的采用。分散式可再生能源工厂使公民能够在发电和管理能源供应方面发挥积极作用。在欧洲，最近的政策正在推广可再生能源社区（REC），该社区由旨在生产和共享可再生能源、自主生成和管理具有成本效益的能源供应链的最终用户集合组成。对 REC 潜力的全面分析需要整合社会经济、环境和空间评估的工具来进行可再生能源评估。本研究的目的是展示 REC 建模工具的现状和功能。本文回顾了 12 种具有评估 REC 潜力的能源建模工具。审查结构遵循 REC 评估流程的步骤，该流程由背景、输入、模拟或优化和输出构成。应包括 REC 项目的技术、经济和环境方面，同时不遗漏新能源系统的空间化和地理规划。研究结果表明，现有的任何工具都不能满足多种标准的共存，因为大多数工具主要分析少数感兴趣的领域，部分考虑其他方面。比较发现，能源和金融产出主要是深化。同时，环境和空间标准在投入和产出中都具有边际作用。最后，软件稍微空间化了除 CEA 和 URBANopt 之外的工作流程步骤，这被证明是 REC 设计的最完整选项。