Social issues in the energy transition: Effect on the design of the new power system

Abstract

A new energy system represents investment and job creation opportunities across any region. The use of economic and/or social criteria to locate the collecting technologies and the power production plants can strengthen the economy and mitigate the effect of the substitution of fossil based power plants. Economy growth, employment and population equity indexes and a mathematical formulation are developed to evaluate the optimal social location of renewable energy collection devices and power plants. These facilities are based on the storage of wind and solar energy in the form of metal hydride that produces power in a fuel cell using the hydrogen generated in its decomposition. The case study of Spain is considered to evaluate the substitution of base electricity since coal and nuclear facilities are closing down in June 2020 and 2030 respectively. Aiming at economic growth, a more distributed location of wind farms and PV panels is selected at a cost. If job generation is the target, only PV panels are selected and the preferred location is the Southern part of the country. However, a trade-off for the lay out can be achieved considering a multiobjective solution involving costs and social background. Substituting coal and nuclear power plants can generate over 500k jobs and help develop the regions reducing the impact of depopulation.