Power sector benefits of flexible heat pumps

Alexander Roth, Carlos Gaete-Morales, Dana Kirchem and Wolf-Peter Schill

Papers from arXiv.org

Abstract: Heat pumps play a major role in decreasing fossil fuel use in heating. They increase electricity demand, but could also foster the system integration of variable renewable energy sources. We analyze three scenarios for expanding decentralized heat pumps in Germany by 2030, focusing on the role of buffer heat storage. Using an open-source power sector model, we assess costs, capacity investments, and emissions effects. We find that investments in solar photovoltaics can cost-effectively accompany the roll-out of heat pumps in case wind power expansion potentials are limited. Results further show that short-duration heat storage substantially reduces the need for firm capacity and battery storage. Larger heat storage sizes do not substantially change the results. Increasing the number of heat pumps from 1.7 to 10 million units could annually save around a quarter of Germany's overall natural gas consumption and around half of households' building-related CO2 emissions.

Date: 2023-07, Revised 2024-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-env
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://arxiv.org/pdf/2307.12918 Latest version (application/pdf)

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:arx:papers:2307.12918

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Papers from arXiv.org
Bibliographic data for series maintained by arXiv administrators ().