The role of photovoltaics in a sustainable European energy system under variable CO₂emissions targets, transmission capacities, and costs assumptions

Abstract

PyPSA-Eur-Sec-30 is an open-source, hourly resolved, networked model of the European energy system that includes one node per country as well as electricity, heating, and transport sectors. The capacity and dispatch of generation and storage technologies in every country can be cost optimized under different CO 2 emissions constraints. This paper presents an overview of the most relevant results previously obtained with the model, highlighting the influence of solar photovoltaic (PV) generation on them.For 95% CO 2 emissions reduction, relative to 1990 level, PV generation supplies in average 33% of the electricity demand. Southern European countries install large PV capacities together with electric batteries, while northern countries install onshore and offshore wind capacities and use hydrogen storage and reinforced interconnections to deal with wind fluctuations. The strong daily generation profile of solar PV heavily impacts the dispatch time series of backup generation and storage technologies. The optimal PV and wind capacities are investigated for variable CO 2 emissions, transmission interconnection among neighbouring countries, and cost assumptions.

Impact of climatic, technical and economic uncertainties on the optimal design of a coupled fossil-free electricity, heating and cooling system in Europe

“…Solar PV is split 50-50% between rooftop and utility-scaled power plants. The impacts of this assumption is limited as discussed in [26]. d OCGT, CHP and gas boilers consume synthetic gas generated from methanation.…”

Three stages in the co-transformation of the energy and mobility sector

“…The potential for global energy supply is very high, inter alia because of predictability [13]. Victoria et al find that on average one third of the electricity demand in Europe in a 95 % emission reduction scenario is covered by solar power [14]. However, due to the intermittent generation character system integration remains a challenge.…”

A computationally efficient Benders decomposition for energy systems planning problems with detailed operations and time-coupling constraints

“…These capacity expansion problems support decision-making in investment planning, regulation, and policy. Assuming perfect foresight and free entry, central-planning optimizations simulate a market under perfect competition; they are thus able to go beyond providing guidance on capacity deployment and retirement and play essential roles analyzing government policies (Larson et al 2021, Victoria et al 2022, Ricks et al 2023) and advanced technologies' role in decarbonized energy systems (Victoria et al 2020, Mallapragada et al 2020, Ricks et al 2022.…”