IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v82y2018ip3p3168-3178.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparison of 100% renewable energy system scenarios with a focus on flexibility and cost

Author

Listed:
  • Deason, Wesley

Abstract

In this study, a particular class of energy system scenarios assuming 100% renewable energy (RE) are selected and compared. The purpose is to compare the relative characteristics of the scenarios, focusing on the amount and types of flexibility used and the predicted electricity generation cost. The approach included the screening of 45 studies (some of which contained multiple scenarios) to down-select to 8 studies, which used high-fidelity short-term energy system models. The compared scenarios applied many strategies for providing flexibility, which was found to be a crucial and significant component of a 100% RE system. Accordingly, only two of the fifteen examined scenarios contained a variable generation fraction greater than 65% of total scenario capacity (73% and 69%). Predicted electricity costs varied drastically in all regions. Some studies provided multiple scenarios (including business-as-usual scenarios and costs) that could be compared. In 3 out of the 4 studies including a business-as-usual cost, the 100% RE scenarios were found to be between 41% and 104% more expensive. The fourth study showed electricity costs to be the same for a 100% RE system and business-as-usual system, and the 100% RE system to be 62% cheaper when externalities are included.

Suggested Citation

  • Deason, Wesley, 2018. "Comparison of 100% renewable energy system scenarios with a focus on flexibility and cost," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3168-3178.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:82:y:2018:i:p3:p:3168-3178
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.026
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032117313990
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2017.10.026?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. Fthenakis, Vasilis & Mason, James E. & Zweibel, Ken, 2009. "The technical, geographical, and economic feasibility for solar energy to supply the energy needs of the US," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 387-399, February.
    2. Pfenninger, Stefan & Keirstead, James, 2015. "Renewables, nuclear, or fossil fuels? Scenarios for Great Britain’s power system considering costs, emissions and energy security," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 83-93.
    3. Delucchi, Mark A. & Jacobson, Mark Z., 2011. "Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, system and transmission costs, and policies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1170-1190, March.
    4. Elliston, Ben & Diesendorf, Mark & MacGill, Iain, 2012. "Simulations of scenarios with 100% renewable electricity in the Australian National Electricity Market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 606-613.
    5. repec:zbw:inwedp:572014 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Trainer, Ted, 2012. "Can Australia run on renewable energy? The negative case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 306-314.
    7. Esteban, Miguel & Zhang, Qi & Utama, Agya, 2012. "Estimation of the energy storage requirement of a future 100% renewable energy system in Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 22-31.
    8. Connolly, D. & Lund, H. & Mathiesen, B.V. & Leahy, M., 2011. "The first step towards a 100% renewable energy-system for Ireland," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 502-507, February.
    9. Schmid, Eva & Pahle, Michael & Knopf, Brigitte, 2013. "Renewable electricity generation in Germany: A meta-analysis of mitigation scenarios," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1151-1163.
    10. Lund, H. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2009. "Energy system analysis of 100% renewable energy systems—The case of Denmark in years 2030 and 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 524-531.
    11. Ćosić, Boris & Krajačić, Goran & Duić, Neven, 2012. "A 100% renewable energy system in the year 2050: The case of Macedonia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 80-87.
    12. Mathiesen, B.V. & Lund, H. & Connolly, D. & Wenzel, H. & Østergaard, P.A. & Möller, B. & Nielsen, S. & Ridjan, I. & Karnøe, P. & Sperling, K. & Hvelplund, F.K., 2015. "Smart Energy Systems for coherent 100% renewable energy and transport solutions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 139-154.
    13. Drouineau, Mathilde & Assoumou, Edi & Mazauric, Vincent & Maïzi, Nadia, 2015. "Increasing shares of intermittent sources in Reunion Island: Impacts on the future reliability of power supply," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 120-128.
    14. Krakowski, Vincent & Assoumou, Edi & Mazauric, Vincent & Maïzi, Nadia, 2016. "Feasible path toward 40–100% renewable energy shares for power supply in France by 2050: A prospective analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 501-522.
    15. Bertsch, Joachim & Growitsch, Christian & Lorenczik, Stefan & Nagl, Stephan, 2016. "Flexibility in Europe's power sector — An additional requirement or an automatic complement?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 118-131.
    16. Corcoran, Bethany A. & Jenkins, Nick & Jacobson, Mark Z., 2012. "Effects of aggregating electric load in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 399-416.
    17. Dominković, D.F. & Bačeković, I. & Ćosić, B. & Krajačić, G. & Pukšec, T. & Duić, N. & Markovska, N., 2016. "Zero carbon energy system of South East Europe in 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 1517-1528.
    18. Mason, I.G. & Page, S.C. & Williamson, A.G., 2013. "Security of supply, energy spillage control and peaking options within a 100% renewable electricity system for New Zealand," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 324-333.
    19. Jacobson, Mark Z. & Delucchi, Mark A., 2011. "Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part I: Technologies, energy resources, quantities and areas of infrastructure, and materials," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 1154-1169, March.
    20. Trainer, Ted, 2013. "Can Europe run on renewable energy? A negative case," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 845-850.
    21. Cochran, Jaquelin & Mai, Trieu & Bazilian, Morgan, 2014. "Meta-analysis of high penetration renewable energy scenarios," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 246-253.
    22. Krajacic, Goran & Duic, Neven & Carvalho, Maria da Graça, 2011. "How to achieve a 100% RES electricity supply for Portugal?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 88(2), pages 508-517, February.
    23. Huva, Robert & Dargaville, Roger & Rayner, Peter, 2016. "Optimising the deployment of renewable resources for the Australian NEM (National Electricity Market) and the effect of atmospheric length scales," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 468-473.
    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. Dawud Ansari, Franziska Holz, and Hashem Al-Kuhlani, 2020. "Energy Outlooks Compared: Global and Regional Insights," Economics of Energy & Environmental Policy, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 21-42.
    2. Østergaard, P.A. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Sorknæs, P. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2022. "Review and validation of EnergyPLAN," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Yang, Weijia & Yang, Jiandong, 2019. "Advantage of variable-speed pumped storage plants for mitigating wind power variations: Integrated modelling and performance assessment," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C), pages 720-732.
    4. Sevdari, Kristian & Calearo, Lisa & Andersen, Peter Bach & Marinelli, Mattia, 2022. "Ancillary services and electric vehicles: An overview from charging clusters and chargers technology perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    5. Golmohamadi, Hessam & Larsen, Kim Guldstrand & Jensen, Peter Gjøl & Hasrat, Imran Riaz, 2022. "Integration of flexibility potentials of district heating systems into electricity markets: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Heffron, Raphael J. & Körner, Marc-Fabian & Schöpf, Michael & Wagner, Jonathan & Weibelzahl, Martin, 2021. "The role of flexibility in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond: Contributing to a sustainable and resilient energy future in Europe," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    7. Tarroja, Brian & Peer, Rebecca A.M. & Sanders, Kelly T. & Grubert, Emily, 2020. "How do non-carbon priorities affect zero-carbon electricity systems? A case study of freshwater consumption and cost for Senate Bill 100 compliance in California," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    8. Jack, M.W. & Mirfin, A. & Anderson, B., 2021. "The role of highly energy-efficient dwellings in enabling 100% renewable electricity," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    9. Qin, Yuxiao & Liu, Pei & Li, Zheng, 2024. "Enhancing accuracy of flexibility characterization in integrated energy system design: A variable temporal resolution optimization method," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    10. Mohseni, Soheil & Brent, Alan C. & Kelly, Scott & Browne, Will N., 2022. "Demand response-integrated investment and operational planning of renewable and sustainable energy systems considering forecast uncertainties: A systematic review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Borasio, M. & Moret, S., 2022. "Deep decarbonisation of regional energy systems: A novel modelling approach and its application to the Italian energy transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    12. Auza, Anna & Asadi, Ehsan & Chenari, Behrang & Gameiro da Silva, Manuel, 2024. "Review of cost objective functions in multi-objective optimisation analysis of buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    13. Xinran Guo & Yuanchu Cheng & Jiada Wei & Yitian Luo, 2021. "Stability Analysis of Different Regulation Modes of Hydropower Units," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Hast, Aira & Syri, Sanna & Lekavičius, Vidas & Galinis, Arvydas, 2018. "District heating in cities as a part of low-carbon energy system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 627-639.
    15. Hansen, Kenneth & Mathiesen, Brian Vad & Skov, Iva Ridjan, 2019. "Full energy system transition towards 100% renewable energy in Germany in 2050," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 1-13.
    16. Yue, Xiufeng & Patankar, Neha & Decarolis, Joseph & Chiodi, Alessandro & Rogan, Fionn & Deane, J.P. & O’Gallachoir, Brian, 2020. "Least cost energy system pathways towards 100% renewable energy in Ireland by 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    17. Prina, Matteo Giacomo & Nastasi, Benedetto & Groppi, Daniele & Misconel, Steffi & Garcia, Davide Astiaso & Sparber, Wolfram, 2022. "Comparison methods of energy system frameworks, models and scenario results," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    18. He, Jianjian & Yang, Yi & Liao, Zhongju & Xu, Anqi & Fang, Kai, 2022. "Linking SDG 7 to assess the renewable energy footprint of nations by 2030," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    19. Papaefthymiou, Georgios & Haesen, Edwin & Sach, Thobias, 2018. "Power System Flexibility Tracker: Indicators to track flexibility progress towards high-RES systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 1026-1035.
    20. Middelhoff, Ella & Madden, Ben & Ximenes, Fabiano & Carney, Catherine & Florin, Nick, 2022. "Assessing electricity generation potential and identifying possible locations for siting hybrid concentrated solar biomass (HCSB) plants in New South Wales (NSW), Australia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 305(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. Hansen, Kenneth & Breyer, Christian & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Status and perspectives on 100% renewable energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 471-480.
    2. Heard, B.P. & Brook, B.W. & Wigley, T.M.L. & Bradshaw, C.J.A., 2017. "Burden of proof: A comprehensive review of the feasibility of 100% renewable-electricity systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 1122-1133.
    3. Diesendorf, Mark & Elliston, Ben, 2018. "The feasibility of 100% renewable electricity systems: A response to critics," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 318-330.
    4. Blanco, Herib & Faaij, André, 2018. "A review at the role of storage in energy systems with a focus on Power to Gas and long-term storage," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1049-1086.
    5. Maruf, Md. Nasimul Islam, 2021. "Open model-based analysis of a 100% renewable and sector-coupled energy system–The case of Germany in 2050," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 288(C).
    6. Østergaard, P.A. & Lund, H. & Thellufsen, J.Z. & Sorknæs, P. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2022. "Review and validation of EnergyPLAN," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    7. Wu, Yunyang & Reedman, Luke J. & Barrett, Mark A. & Spataru, Catalina, 2018. "Comparison of CST with different hours of storage in the Australian National Electricity Market," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 487-496.
    8. Elliston, Ben & MacGill, Iain & Diesendorf, Mark, 2014. "Comparing least cost scenarios for 100% renewable electricity with low emission fossil fuel scenarios in the Australian National Electricity Market," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 196-204.
    9. Olav H. Hohmeyer & Sönke Bohm, 2015. "Trends toward 100% renewable electricity supply in Germany and Europe: a paradigm shift in energy policies," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy and Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(1), pages 74-97, January.
    10. Martin Robinius & Alexander Otto & Philipp Heuser & Lara Welder & Konstantinos Syranidis & David S. Ryberg & Thomas Grube & Peter Markewitz & Ralf Peters & Detlef Stolten, 2017. "Linking the Power and Transport Sectors—Part 1: The Principle of Sector Coupling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, July.
    11. Riesz, Jenny & Elliston, Ben, 2016. "Research and deployment priorities for renewable technologies: Quantifying the importance of various renewable technologies for low cost, high renewable electricity systems in an Australian case study," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 298-308.
    12. Fernandes, Liliana & Ferreira, Paula, 2014. "Renewable energy scenarios in the Portuguese electricity system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 51-57.
    13. Lenzen, Manfred & McBain, Bonnie & Trainer, Ted & Jütte, Silke & Rey-Lescure, Olivier & Huang, Jing, 2016. "Simulating low-carbon electricity supply for Australia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 553-564.
    14. Kiwan, Suhil & Al-Gharibeh, Elyasa, 2020. "Jordan toward a 100% renewable electricity system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 423-436.
    15. Elliston, Ben & MacGill, Iain & Diesendorf, Mark, 2013. "Least cost 100% renewable electricity scenarios in the Australian National Electricity Market," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 270-282.
    16. Bačeković, Ivan & Østergaard, Poul Alberg, 2018. "Local smart energy systems and cross-system integration," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 812-825.
    17. Victoria, Marta & Gallego-Castillo, Cristobal, 2019. "Hourly-resolution analysis of electricity decarbonization in Spain (2017–2030)," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 233, pages 674-690.
    18. Yousefzadeh, Moslem & Lenzen, Manfred, 2019. "Performance of concentrating solar power plants in a whole-of-grid context," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 1-1.
    19. Borasio, M. & Moret, S., 2022. "Deep decarbonisation of regional energy systems: A novel modelling approach and its application to the Italian energy transition," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    20. Ma, Weiwu & Xue, Xinpei & Liu, Gang, 2018. "Techno-economic evaluation for hybrid renewable energy system: Application and merits," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C), pages 385-409.

    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:rensus:v:82:y:2018:i:p3:p:3168-3178. 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/600126/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.