Wind Power Decreases the Need for Storage in an Interconnected 100% Renewable European Power Sector

Alexander Roth and Wolf-Peter Schill

No 2025, Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: The massive expansion of wind power and solar PV is the primary strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in many countries. Due to their variable generation profiles, power sector flexibility needs to increase. Geographical balancing enabled by electricity grids and temporal flexibility enabled by electricity storage are important options for flexibility. As they interact with each other, we investigate how and why interconnection with neighboring countries reduces storage needs. To do so, we apply a cost-minimizing open-source capacity expansion model to a 100% renewable energy scenario of central Europe. We use a factorization method to disentangle the effect of interconnection on optimal storage through distinct channels: differences in (i) countries’ solar PV and wind power capacity factors, (ii) load profiles, as well as (iii) hydropower and bioenergy capacity. Results show that geographical balancing lowers aggregate storage capacities by around 30% in contrast to a similar system without interconnection. We further find that the differences in wind power profiles between countries explain, on average, around 80% of that effect. Differences in solar PV capacity factors, load profiles, or country-specific capacities of hydropower together explain up to 20%. Our analysis improves the understanding of the benefits of geographical balancing for providing flexibility and its drivers.

Keywords: Variable renewable energy sources; electricity storage; interconnection; numerical optimization; 100% renewable energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C61 Q42 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 , XII p.
Date: 2022
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:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.diw.de/documents/publikationen/73/diw_01.c.860999.de/dp2025.pdf (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:diw:diwwpp:dp2025

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin from DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Bibliothek ().