Abstract
Using electricity for heating can contribute to decarbonization and provide flexibility to integrate variable renewable energy. We analyze the case of electric storage heaters in German 2030 scenarios with an open-source electricity sector model. We find that flexible electric heaters generally increase the use of generation technologies with low variable costs, which are not necessarily renewables. Yet making customary night-time storage heaters temporally more flexible offers only moderate benefits because renewable availability during daytime is limited in the heating season. Respective investment costs accordingly have to be very low in order to realize total system cost benefits. As storage heaters feature only short-term heat storage, they also cannot reconcile the seasonal mismatch of heat demand in winter and high renewable availability in summer. Future research should evaluate the benefits of longer-term heat storage.
Highlights
Mitigating climate change demands decarbonizing energy supply, and renewable electricity sources play an essential role (IPCC, 2018)
We contribute to the literature in several ways: first, we provide evidence on system effects of electric thermal storage heaters; past contributions were scarce and findings mixed
In Appendix A.4, we show results of further scenarios that vary the share of SETS and other power-to-heat technologies
Summary
Mitigating climate change demands decarbonizing energy supply, and renewable electricity sources play an essential role (IPCC, 2018). In Germany, often considered a frontrunner in the transition to renewables, they supplied 36% of gross electricity demand in 2017, up from 6% in 2000 (BMWi, 2018a). Decarbonization must go beyond current electricity use. By 2016, more than a quarter of gross energy consumption and 16% of greenhouse gas emissions stemmed from space heating (BMWi, 2018c). One option is the use of renewable electricity in the heating and transportation sectors, often referred to as sector coupling or electrification. In its latest report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the IPCC (2018) puts an emphasis on such electrification of end energy use
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