Transmission grid extensions during the build-up of a fully renewable pan-European electricity supply

By Sarah Becker, Rolando A. Rodriguez, Gorm Bruun Andresen, S. Schramm, Martin Greiner. 2013

139 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Spatio-temporal generation patterns for wind and solar photovoltaic power in Europe are used to investigate the future rise in transmission needs with an increasing penetration of the VRES (variable renewable energy sources) on the pan-European electricity system. VRES growth predictions according to the official National Renewable Energy Action Plans of the EU countries are used and extrapolated logistically up to a fully VRES-supplied power system. We find that keeping today's international NTCs (net transfer capacities) fixed over the next forty years reduces the final need for backup energy by 13% when compared to the situation with no NTCs. An overall doubling of today's NTCs will lead to a 26% reduction, and an overall quadrupling to a 33% reduction. The remaining need for backup energy is due to correlations in the generation patterns, and cannot be further reduced by transmission. The main investments in transmission lines are due during the ramp-up of VRES from 15% (as planned for 2020) to 80%. Additionally, our results show how the optimal mix between wind and solar energy shifts from about 70% to 80% wind share as the transmission grid is enhanced. Finally, we exemplify how reinforced transmission affects the import and export opportunities of single countries during the VRES ramp-up.

Subfields: Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Environmental Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/60ef6bbb87a831f7e66f100f26ba34da7bdf8119

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Citations in the corpus

The benefits of cooperation in a highly renewable European electricity network (2017, background): “In [7, 12] similar non-linear effects of transmission were found in a more simplified model of a highly renewable European electricity system without a limit on CO2 emissions, without storage or hydroelectricity, and without optimising transmission and generator capacities.”
Features of a fully renewable US electricity system: Optimized mixes of wind and solar PV and transmission grid extensions (2014, unknown): “[22, 23] for Europe (”Quantile layout”).”
Response to ‘Burden of proof: A comprehensive review of the feasibility of 100% renewable-electricity systems’ (2017, background): “The interconnectors are historically weak compared to national grids(4) and restricted by poor market design and operation [130]; if a similar methodology to [85,129] is applied to a more detailed grid model with nodal pricing, the expansion is only between 25% and 50% more than today's capacity [42”
Flexible electricity generation, grid exchange and storage for the transition to a 100% renewable energy system in Europe (2019, background): “[31] 2014 AU model Higher investments in transmission interconnections can”
Using the sun to decarbonize the power sector: The economic potential of photovoltaics and concentrating solar power ☆ (2014, background): “increase in long-distance electricity transmission from sites with favorable renewable resources to demand centers [62], [66]–[69].”
How to meet EU GHG emission reduction targets? A model based decarbonization pathway for Europe's electricity supply system until 2050 (2017, methodology): “employ a simplified model including wind and PV power only [30].”
Burden of proof: A comprehensive review of the feasibility of 100% renewable-electricity systems (2017, background): “[141] found that an optimal four-fold increase in today's transmission capacity would need to be installed in the thirty years from 2020 to 2050.”