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This research presents a completely decarbonized system structured with renewable energies for the fragile ecosystem of the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador, with a horizon to the year 2050. The transition process begins with clear legal actions and allocating economic resources that clearly promote a change in the energy matrix and the transition would be achieved until the year 2050. The Galapagos Islands are the second largest marine reserve on the planet, declared a World Heritage Site in 1978 for UNESCO. The archipelago, a beautiful ecological attraction, has tourism as its main economic source. The biggest problem is in the supply of energy that mainly comes from fossil fuels, in addition to that, the smell of fuel in several places is out of tune with the harmonious nature and its species. The efforts began to be noticed when in the Archipelago the new implementations of renewable energy began to become a reality with the purpose of stopping using fossil fuels. In this sense, there is the potential to take advantage of the resources available in specific sites, especially the photovoltaic and wind solar considered in the National Plan All a Life. The change in the productive matrix from the national level also implies a change in demand, including at the transportation level with the use of electric vehicles and the use of electric stoves in homes. The purpose is that energy services in the Galapagos Islands progressively increase, on the one hand, replacing fossil fuels and on the other, supplying the growing demand with a view to 2050, taking advantage of renewable energies until reaching 100%. • The scenario outlined is 100% renewable energy by 2050 in the Galapagos Islands. •The Galapagos archipelago has great renewable energy potential. •The decarbonization in Galapagos will have a positive impact on the socioeconomic and environmental aspects. •Decarbonization is feasible by 2050 depending on the economic situation. •The electricity system of Galapagos will allow it to maintain its status as a Cultural Heritage of Humanity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Renewable sources on islands seem to be the most attractive option to decarbonize and lower the price of electricity; currently, most islands do so by replacing their diesel generators with wind or solar sources, along with energy storage. The Galapagos Islands are no exception. This study presents a techno-economic analysis of hybrid renewable systems in the Galapagos Islands, considering the repowering of its renewable sources and reduction in the penetration of diesel generators. This study uses EnergyPlan software, where the best option is chosen based on technical, economic, and environmental indicators. Finally, several sensitivity analyses are done. The results show that by increasing the capacity of current wind and photovoltaic systems, the total annual cost reduces by 20% and 10.31%, respectively; this is a specific result of this study. Moreover, there is a reduction in CO2 emissions produced by diesel generators, up to 38.96%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a technical-economic study of the 100% renewable energy sources in the Galapagos islands is done. Historical consumption data for 2011–2020 have been considered to forecast the load curve. To achieve this goal, the load is forecasting by Nonlinear autoregressive exogenous neuronal network model for 2030 and 2050. The study focuses on supplying the energy demand of the islands with renewable sources, analyzing possible scenarios based on the current electricity system. The methodology studies the capacity of renewable sources to balance supply and demand through dispatch simulations using the EnergyPLAN software. The results show energy flows, costs and long-term energy balances (2050), with 100% renewable energy from several wind and photovoltaic combinations. Moreover, The precision of the demand forecast was 98.12% with a mean square error of 0.013%. The total annual cost decreases while the capacities of the renewable sources increase to a certain point of equilibrium. As salient features of the developed approach, various sensitivity analyzes are presented that allow understanding the uncertainties, scope and limitations of the proposed models. [Display omitted] • This study performs a long-term demand forecast using artificial neural networks for the year 2030 and 2050. • To determine the feasibility of the long-term renewable system, the EnergyPLAN software has been used. • Several sensitivity analyzes are presented regarding the capacities of the sources, storage system and the total annual cost. • Diesel generator capacity is gradually reduced until completely mitigated. • Long-term 100% renewable system reduces surplus electricity and greenhouse gas emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Planning of electrical energy for the Galapagos Islands. • The results show that these islands can achieve 100% renewable penetration. • Study the load forecast for the Baltra-Santa Cruz Island for 2031. • Include a pumped storage hydroelectric (PH) system, more competitive than the batteries for the baltra-santa cruz electricity supply, and supplies turbine water to the desalination plant. • An optimized PV/WT/PH/DG/BAT hybrid system that supplies the electricity demand and energy consumption for drinking water supply for the Baltra-Santa Cruz islands in 2031. • The COE of the hybrid system of Baltra-Santa Cruz is reduced from 0.32 to 0.23 $/kWh. The present study focuses on the planning of electrical energy for the Galapagos islands using different renewable energy technologies for the year 2031 in order to reduce diesel consumption and achieve 100% renewable energy share. To do that, a long-term load demand forecast study on the Santa Cruz and Baltra islands (Galapagos), applying Artificial Neural Networks, is done. Then, to optimize the islands' power system, mostly based on diesel generation, different renewable energy technologies together with energy storage systems, such as batteries and hydraulic pumping, have been analyzed through the application of the HOMER Pro-software. For this purpose, two energy control models have been developed to gradually reduce the operating hours of the diesel power plant. The results show that these islands can achieve 100% renewable penetration with the following configuration: photovoltaic/wind turbines/batteries/pumping hydroelectric storage system/diesel generators (only as back-up). This implies increasing the photovoltaic capacity by 26 MWp and installing a pumped hydraulic storage of 374 MWh. In this way, the electricity generation cost would be reduced from $ 0.32/kWh to $ 0.23/kWh, and the CO 2 emissions would decrease by 16,000 tons of CO 2 into the environment. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]