Ensuring diversity of national energy scenarios: Bottom-up energy system model with Modeling to Generate Alternatives

Abstract

Long-range energy scenarios are commonly used to inform national energy policy decisions. Although the scenario approach aims to expand the spectrum of futures considered, in the past energy scenarios have not been diverse enough to include less expected real-world developments. We use a bottom-up energy system model EXPANSE with Modeling to Generate Alternatives (MGA) to assess the diversity of the existing ensemble of multi-organization, multi-model Swiss electricity supply scenarios. We show that both for 2035 and 2050 existing scenarios cover well the various possibilities in deployment of individual electricity generation technologies in terms of installed capacity or produced electricity. When analyzing scenarios as a whole, we find that in 2035 there is a lack of scenarios with high electricity demand and greater deployment of renewable technologies occurring simultaneously, as well as scenarios with a negligible or negative share of net electricity import. In 2050, there is also a lack of scenarios that depict high electricity demand and conservative deployment of new renewable technologies, especially solar PV. We propose six additional scenarios to be included to increase the diversity of the ensemble of Swiss electricity supply scenarios and achieve better understanding of the future possibilities and uncertainties.