Achieving Net Zero Carbon Emissions in Switzerland in 2050: Low Carbon Scenarios and their System Costs

Jan Horst Keppler, Anne-Laure Mazauric, Francesco Tassi and Guillaume Krivtchik
Additional contact information
Anne-Laure Mazauric: DER - Département Etude des Réacteurs - IRESNE - Institut de recherche sur les systèmes nucléaires pour la production d'énergie bas carbone (CEA - DES) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, IRESNE - Institut de recherche sur les systèmes nucléaires pour la production d'énergie bas carbone (CEA - DES) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, G2ELab - Laboratoire de Génie Electrique de Grenoble - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes - Grenoble INP - Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology - UGA - Université Grenoble Alpes
Guillaume Krivtchik: DER - Département Etude des Réacteurs - IRESNE - Institut de recherche sur les systèmes nucléaires pour la production d'énergie bas carbone (CEA - DES) - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CEA Cadarache - CEA - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: With an electricity system defined by high shares of hydropower, large capacity for interconnection with its neighbours and low carbon intensity, Switzerland is well positioned to attain its objective of net zero carbon emissions by 2050. However, the exact pathway remains the subject of discussion. First, what should the shares of nuclear energy and variable renewable energies such as solar PV and wind be in the energy mix? Second, what degree of electricity trade should Switzerland have with its European neighbours? New system modelling of different energy policy choices with the Nuclear Energy Agency's POSY model shows that all considered scenarios are technically feasible. However, relying on variable renewables alone or decoupling Switzerland from neighbouring countries could increase total system costs by up to 250%. Instead, continuing to operate Switzerland's newest nuclear power plants alongside existing hydropower resources, while maintaining interconnection capacity at current levels, emerges as the most cost-effective option to achieve net zero emissions in 2050. Ample data and technical documentation of a least-cost mixed integer (MILP) modelling with hourly resolution are also provided in order to allow replication, extension and discussion of this study's findings.

Keywords: Nuclear Energy Agency; Switzerland; variable renewables (VRE); electricity supply; carbon emissions; Swiss energy strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Published in [Research Report] Université Paris Dauphine-PSL. 2022, pp.136

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:hal:wpaper:hal-03964611

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().