IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/appene/v346y2023ics0306261923006268.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic PV expansion and its impact on regional electricity self-sufficiency: Case study of Switzerland

Author

Listed:
  • Walch, Alina
  • Rüdisüli, Martin

Abstract

Solar photovoltaics (PV) will play an important role in decarbonising the energy system. To date, most assessments of PV transition pathways focus on least-cost aspects, without neither considering the time needed to achieve a substantial PV deployment, nor the impacts on regional electricity supply equality. In this work, we propose two alternative PV expansion strategies for Switzerland: The first strategy prioritises the most productive roofs and reaches national PV targets by exploiting the minimum number of rooftops, while the second strategy aims at maximising regional self-sufficiency as proxy of PV supply equality. Both strategies are assessed for several PV expansion scenarios using real hourly PV potential data for the entire Swiss building stock. The scenarios are compared to hourly electricity demand profiles for the residential and service sector. Results suggest that when employing the first strategy, at least 46% of suitable rooftops – mostly large roofs with low tilt angles – are needed to reach Switzerland’s 2050 PV expansion target of 35 TWh. For the projected electricity demand in 2050, this leads to annual electricity self-sufficiency in about 40% of Swiss districts. This percentage can be increased to over 70% by following strategy two to maximise self-sufficiency – which may feature several economic and societal advantages – at the cost of covering 86% of suitable rooftops with PV. The findings may support policy makers and local utilities to find efficient and equitable pathways for a decentralised PV expansion, while at the same time reaching the ambitious national renewable energy targets within due time.

Suggested Citation

  • Walch, Alina & Rüdisüli, Martin, 2023. "Strategic PV expansion and its impact on regional electricity self-sufficiency: Case study of Switzerland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:346:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923006268
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121262
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261923006268
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.apenergy.2023.121262?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Assouline, Dan & Mohajeri, Nahid & Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, 2018. "Large-scale rooftop solar photovoltaic technical potential estimation using Random Forests," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 189-211.
    2. Alessandro Ciocia & Angela Amato & Paolo Di Leo & Stefania Fichera & Gabriele Malgaroli & Filippo Spertino & Slavka Tzanova, 2021. "Self-Consumption and Self-Sufficiency in Photovoltaic Systems: Effect of Grid Limitation and Storage Installation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-24, March.
    3. Walch, Alina & Castello, Roberto & Mohajeri, Nahid & Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, 2020. "Big data mining for the estimation of hourly rooftop photovoltaic potential and its uncertainty," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(C).
    4. Bódis, Katalin & Kougias, Ioannis & Jäger-Waldau, Arnulf & Taylor, Nigel & Szabó, Sándor, 2019. "A high-resolution geospatial assessment of the rooftop solar photovoltaic potential in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Vulic, Natasa & Rüdisüli, Martin & Orehounig, Kristina, 2023. "Evaluating energy flexibility requirements for high shares of variable renewable energy: A heuristic approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    6. Loris Di Natale & Luca Funk & Martin Rüdisüli & Bratislav Svetozarevic & Giacomo Pareschi & Philipp Heer & Giovanni Sansavini, 2021. "The Potential of Vehicle-to-Grid to Support the Energy Transition: A Case Study on Switzerland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-24, August.
    7. Ramirez Camargo, Luis & Nitsch, Felix & Gruber, Katharina & Dorner, Wolfgang, 2018. "Electricity self-sufficiency of single-family houses in Germany and the Czech Republic," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 902-915.
    8. Zappa, William & van den Broek, Machteld, 2018. "Analysing the potential of integrating wind and solar power in Europe using spatial optimisation under various scenarios," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 1192-1216.
    9. Caleb Phillips & Ryan Elmore & Jenny Melius & Pieter Gagnon & Robert Margolis, 2019. "A data mining approach to estimating rooftop photovoltaic potential in the US," Journal of Applied Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 385-394, February.
    10. Shah, Rakibuzzaman & Mithulananthan, N. & Bansal, R.C. & Ramachandaramurthy, V.K., 2015. "A review of key power system stability challenges for large-scale PV integration," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1423-1436.
    11. Bartlett, Stuart & Dujardin, Jérôme & Kahl, Annelen & Kruyt, Bert & Manso, Pedro & Lehning, Michael, 2018. "Charting the course: A possible route to a fully renewable Swiss power system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 942-955.
    12. Marta Victoria & Kun Zhu & Tom Brown & Gorm B. Andresen & Martin Greiner, 2020. "Early decarbonisation of the European energy system pays off," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    13. Pfenninger, Stefan & Staffell, Iain, 2016. "Long-term patterns of European PV output using 30 years of validated hourly reanalysis and satellite data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1251-1265.
    14. Cousse, Julia, 2021. "Still in love with solar energy? Installation size, affect, and the social acceptance of renewable energy technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    15. Thormeyer, Christoph & Sasse, Jan-Philipp & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2020. "Spatially-explicit models should consider real-world diffusion of renewable electricity: Solar PV example in Switzerland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 363-374.
    16. Rüdisüli, Martin & Bach, Christian & Bauer, Christian & Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier & Elber, Urs & Georges, Gil & Limpach, Robert & Pareschi, Giacomo & Kannan, Ramachandran & Teske, Sinan L., 2022. "Prospective life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of electricity-based mobility options," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).
    17. Yilmaz, S. & Weber, S. & Patel, M.K., 2019. "Who is sensitive to DSM? Understanding the determinants of the shape of electricity load curves and demand shifting: Socio-demographic characteristics, appliance use and attitudes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    18. Chattopadhyay, Kabitri & Kies, Alexander & Lorenz, Elke & von Bremen, Lüder & Heinemann, Detlev, 2017. "The impact of different PV module configurations on storage and additional balancing needs for a fully renewable European power system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 176-189.
    19. Rüdisüli, Martin & Romano, Elliot & Eggimann, Sven & Patel, Martin K., 2022. "Decarbonization strategies for Switzerland considering embedded greenhouse gas emissions in electricity imports," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    20. Pareschi, Giacomo & Küng, Lukas & Georges, Gil & Boulouchos, Konstantinos, 2020. "Are travel surveys a good basis for EV models? Validation of simulated charging profiles against empirical data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    21. Molin, Andreas & Schneider, Simon & Rohdin, Patrik & Moshfegh, Bahram, 2016. "Assessing a regional building applied PV potential – Spatial and dynamic analysis of supply and load matching," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 261-274.
    22. Charlotte Senkpiel & Wolfgang Hauser, 2020. "Systemic Evaluation of the Effects of Regional Self-Supply Targets on the German Electricity System Using Consistent Scenarios and System Optimization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-26, September.
    23. Jan-Philipp Sasse & Evelina Trutnevyte, 2020. "Regional impacts of electricity system transition in Central Europe until 2035," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-14, December.
    24. Adolfsen, Jakob Feveile & Kuik, Friderike & Schuler, Tobias & Lis, Eliza, 2022. "The impact of the war in Ukraine on euro area energy markets," Economic Bulletin Boxes, European Central Bank, vol. 4.
    25. Heymann, Fabian & Miranda, Vladimiro & Soares, Filipe Joel & Duenas, Pablo & Perez Arriaga, Ignacio & Prata, Ricardo, 2019. "Orchestrating incentive designs to reduce adverse system-level effects of large-scale EV/PV adoption – The case of Portugal," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    26. Martin Drechsler & Jonas Egerer & Martin Lange & Frank Masurowski & Jürgen Meyerhoff & Malte Oehlmann, 2017. "Efficient and equitable spatial allocation of renewable power plants at the country scale," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 2(9), pages 1-9, September.
    27. Sasse, Jan-Philipp & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2019. "Distributional trade-offs between regionally equitable and cost-efficient allocation of renewable electricity generation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    28. Balta-Ozkan, Nazmiye & Yildirim, Julide & Connor, Peter M., 2015. "Regional distribution of photovoltaic deployment in the UK and its determinants: A spatial econometric approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 417-429.
    29. Gupta, Rahul & Sossan, Fabrizio & Paolone, Mario, 2021. "Countrywide PV hosting capacity and energy storage requirements for distribution networks: The case of Switzerland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    30. Engelken, Maximilian & Römer, Benedikt & Drescher, Marcus & Welpe, Isabell, 2016. "Transforming the energy system: Why municipalities strive for energy self-sufficiency," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 365-377.
    31. Marianne Zeyringer & James Price & Birgit Fais & Pei-Hao Li & Ed Sharp, 2018. "Designing low-carbon power systems for Great Britain in 2050 that are robust to the spatiotemporal and inter-annual variability of weather," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(5), pages 395-403, May.
    32. Dujardin, Jérôme & Kahl, Annelen & Kruyt, Bert & Bartlett, Stuart & Lehning, Michael, 2017. "Interplay between photovoltaic, wind energy and storage hydropower in a fully renewable Switzerland," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 513-525.
    33. Yang, Ying & Campana, Pietro Elia & Stridh, Bengt & Yan, Jinyue, 2020. "Potential analysis of roof-mounted solar photovoltaics in Sweden," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 279(C).
    34. Müller, Jonas & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2020. "Spatial projections of solar PV installations at subnational level: Accuracy testing of regression models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    35. Martin Rüdisüli & Sinan L. Teske & Urs Elber, 2019. "Impacts of an Increased Substitution of Fossil Energy Carriers with Electricity-Based Technologies on the Swiss Electricity System," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-38, June.
    36. Pedersen, Tim T. & Victoria, Marta & Rasmussen, Morten G. & Andresen, Gorm B., 2021. "Modeling all alternative solutions for highly renewable energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).
    37. Mariaud, Arthur & Acha, Salvador & Ekins-Daukes, Ned & Shah, Nilay & Markides, Christos N., 2017. "Integrated optimisation of photovoltaic and battery storage systems for UK commercial buildings," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 199(C), pages 466-478.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Słowik, Adam & Cpałka, Krzysztof & Xue, Yu & Hapka, Aneta, 2024. "An efficient approach to parameter extraction of photovoltaic cell models using a new population-based algorithm," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 364(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Müller, Jonas & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2020. "Spatial projections of solar PV installations at subnational level: Accuracy testing of regression models," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    2. Wen, Xin & Heinisch, Verena & Müller, Jonas & Sasse, Jan-Philipp & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2023. "Comparison of statistical and optimization models for projecting future PV installations at a sub-national scale," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    3. Lonergan, Katherine Emma & Sansavini, Giovanni, 2022. "Business structure of electricity distribution system operator and effect on solar photovoltaic uptake: An empirical case study for Switzerland," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Rüdisüli, Martin & Bach, Christian & Bauer, Christian & Beloin-Saint-Pierre, Didier & Elber, Urs & Georges, Gil & Limpach, Robert & Pareschi, Giacomo & Kannan, Ramachandran & Teske, Sinan L., 2022. "Prospective life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions of electricity-based mobility options," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PB).
    5. Heinisch, Verena & Dujardin, Jérôme & Gabrielli, Paolo & Jain, Pranjal & Lehning, Michael & Sansavini, Giovanni & Sasse, Jan-Philipp & Schaffner, Christian & Schwarz, Marius & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2023. "Inter-comparison of spatial models for high shares of renewable electricity in Switzerland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    6. Franziska Steinberger & Tobias Minder & Evelina Trutnevyte, 2020. "Efficiency versus Equity in Spatial Siting of Electricity Generation: Citizen Preferences in a Serious Board Game in Switzerland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-17, September.
    7. Loris Di Natale & Luca Funk & Martin Rüdisüli & Bratislav Svetozarevic & Giacomo Pareschi & Philipp Heer & Giovanni Sansavini, 2021. "The Potential of Vehicle-to-Grid to Support the Energy Transition: A Case Study on Switzerland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-24, August.
    8. Gassar, Abdo Abdullah Ahmed & Cha, Seung Hyun, 2021. "Review of geographic information systems-based rooftop solar photovoltaic potential estimation approaches at urban scales," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    9. Aslani, Mohammad & Seipel, Stefan, 2022. "Automatic identification of utilizable rooftop areas in digital surface models for photovoltaics potential assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 306(PA).
    10. Vassilis M. Charitopoulos & Mathilde Fajardy & Chi Kong Chyong & David M. Reiner, 2022. "The case of 100% electrification of domestic heat in Great Britain," Working Papers EPRG2206, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    11. Guglielmina Mutani & Valeria Todeschi, 2021. "Optimization of Costs and Self-Sufficiency for Roof Integrated Photovoltaic Technologies on Residential Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, July.
    12. Sasse, Jan-Philipp & Trutnevyte, Evelina, 2023. "Cost-effective options and regional interdependencies of reaching a low-carbon European electricity system in 2035," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    13. Dujardin, Jérôme & Schillinger, Moritz & Kahl, Annelen & Savelsberg, Jonas & Schlecht, Ingmar & Lordan-Perret, Rebecca, 2022. "Optimized market value of alpine solar photovoltaic installations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 878-888.
    14. Tafarte, Philip & Lehmann, Paul, 2023. "Quantifying trade-offs for the spatial allocation of onshore wind generation capacity – A case study for Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    15. Liu, Jiang & Wu, Qifeng & Lin, Zhipeng & Shi, Huijie & Wen, Shaoyang & Wu, Qiaoyu & Zhang, Junxue & Peng, Changhai, 2023. "A novel approach for assessing rooftop-and-facade solar photovoltaic potential in rural areas using three-dimensional (3D) building models constructed with GIS," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    16. Göke, Leonard & Kendziorski, Mario & Kemfert, Claudia & Hirschhausen, Christian von, 2022. "Accounting for spatiality of renewables and storage in transmission planning," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    17. Sredenšek, Klemen & Štumberger, Bojan & Hadžiselimović, Miralem & Mavsar, Primož & Seme, Sebastijan, 2022. "Physical, geographical, technical, and economic potential for the optimal configuration of photovoltaic systems using a digital surface model and optimization method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    18. Grochowicz, Aleksander & van Greevenbroek, Koen & Benth, Fred Espen & Zeyringer, Marianne, 2023. "Intersecting near-optimal spaces: European power systems with more resilience to weather variability," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    19. Dupré la Tour, Marie-Alix, 2023. "Photovoltaic and wind energy potential in Europe – A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    20. Gupta, Ruchi & Pena-Bello, Alejandro & Streicher, Kai Nino & Roduner, Cattia & Farhat, Yamshid & Thöni, David & Patel, Martin Kumar & Parra, David, 2021. "Spatial analysis of distribution grid capacity and costs to enable massive deployment of PV, electric mobility and electric heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 287(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:346:y:2023:i:c:s0306261923006268. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.