Synergies of sector coupling and transmission reinforcement in a cost-optimised, highly renewable European energy system

T. Brown, D. Schlachtberger, A. Kies, S. Schramm and M. Greiner

Energy, 2018, vol. 160, issue C, 720-739

Abstract: There are two competing concepts in the literature for the integration of high shares of renewable energy: the coupling of electricity to other energy sectors, such as transport and heating, and the reinforcement of continent-wide transmission networks. In this paper both cross-sector and cross-border integration are considered in the model PyPSA-Eur-Sec-30, the first open, spatially-resolved, temporally-resolved and sector-coupled energy model of Europe. Using a simplified network with one node per country, the cost-optimal system is calculated for a 95% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions compared to 1990, incorporating electricity, transport and heat demand. Flexibility from battery electric vehicles (BEV), power-to-gas units (P2G) and long-term thermal energy storage (LTES) make a significant contribution to the smoothing of variability from wind and solar and to the reduction of total system costs. The cost-minimising integration of BEV pairs well with the daily variations of solar power, while P2G and LTES balance the synoptic and seasonal variations of demand and renewables. In all scenarios, an expansion of cross-border transmission reduces system costs, but the more tightly the energy sectors are coupled, the weaker the benefit of transmission reinforcement becomes.

Keywords: Energy system design; Large-scale integration of renewable power generation; Sector coupling; Power transmission; CO2 emission reduction targets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (204)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054421831288X
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:160:y:2018:i:c:p:720-739

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.06.222

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().