Abstract
Wind and solar PV have become the lowest-cost renewable alternatives and are expected to dominate the power supply matrix in many countries worldwide. However, wind and solar are inherently variable renewable energy sources (vRES) and their characteristics pose new challenges for power systems and for the transition to a renewable energy-based power supply. Using new options for the integration of high shares of vRES is therefore crucial. In order to assess these options, we model the expansion pathways of wind power and solar photovoltaics (solar PV) capacities and their impact on the renewable share in a case study for Germany. Therefore, a numerical optimization approach is applied on temporally resolved generation and consumption time series data to identify the most efficient and fastest capacity expansion pathways. In addition to conventional layouts of wind and solar PV, our model includes advanced, system-friendly technology layouts in combination with electric energy storage from existing pumped hydro storage as promising integration options. The results provide policy makers with useful insights for technology-specific capacity expansion as we identified potentials to reduce costs and infrastructural requirements in the form of power grids and electric energy storage, and to accelerate the transition to a fully renewable power sector.
Highlights
The rapid expansion of renewable energies worldwide has resulted in a steep increase in installed capacities in recent years
We modeled electric energy storage to identify how it enables the use of EE production from variable renewable energy sources (vRES) which is otherwise not contributing to the REN share and progressively curtailed
To complement the findings on pathways, we provide residual load duration curves (RLDC) in Figure 11 to add one additional aspect associated with efficient pathways and capacity mixes for vRES
Summary
The rapid expansion of renewable energies worldwide has resulted in a steep increase in installed capacities in recent years. Climate protection is one of the key drivers for renewables, and especially wind and solar PV have become cost-competitive in comparison to established non-renewable sources [1]. Despite this dynamic expansion of renewables, there are several challenges ahead, since climate protection aims call for an even faster transition to keep on track with greenhouse gases (GHG) emission reduction [2]. Wind and solar PV are variable renewable energy sources (vRES). These inherently volatile sources pose major challenges for their integration into the power supply system [3,4,5,6,7,8,9] and the transition to a fully renewable power supply system [10,11,12,13]
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