Towards near-zero-carbon industrial parks: Integrating photovoltaics, storage, grid interaction, and distributed trading

Industrial buildings play a critical role in achieving national carbon neutrality targets. Rooftop photovoltaic application represents an effective mitigation option, but its deployment is often limited by curtailment. This study evaluates the synergies of photovoltaic generation combined with energy storage, surplus-to-grid export, and distributed power trading to enhance carbon reduction in industrial building clusters. Hourly electricity demand and solar generation potential are derived from smart meter records and satellite data for multiple industrial buildings in a Chinese industrial park. A linear programming model is developed to optimize installed capacity and annual operational outcomes under nine scenarios. The results indicate that deploying storage, surplus export, or contract-based distributed trading individually can alleviate photovoltaic curtailment and achieve 40-60% emission reductions, whereas physical distributed trading is less effective due to high infrastructure costs. Integrating all measures achieves the highest cost savings and enables near-zero-carbon electricity consumption, with solar generation fully consumed and the PV share in electricity consumption reaching 84%. However, the zero-carbon scenario highlights that eliminating the final fraction of emissions requires disproportionately high costs, calling for additional efforts. These findings demonstrate a practical pathway to promote photovoltaic development and local consumption, while supportive policies remain essential to jointly enable the low-carbon transition of the industrial sector.