IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natene/v7y2022i12d10.1038_s41560-022-01136-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Implications of intercontinental renewable electricity trade for energy systems and emissions

Author

Listed:
  • Fei Guo

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA))

  • Bas J. Ruijven

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA))

  • Behnam Zakeri

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA))

  • Shining Zhang

    (Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO))

  • Xing Chen

    (Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO))

  • Changyi Liu

    (Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO))

  • Fang Yang

    (Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO))

  • Volker Krey

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
    Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU))

  • Keywan Riahi

    (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
    Graz University of Technology)

  • Han Huang

    (Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO))

  • Yuanbing Zhou

    (Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO))

Abstract

A rapid global energy transition, including the ramping up of electricity generation from renewables, is needed to limit global warming to 2 °C or 1.5 °C. However, renewable resource endowments vary widely between regions, and renewable electricity is currently mainly used locally. Here we use a global integrated assessment model to explore the implications of renewable electricity trade via a set of planned direct-current-type ultra-high-voltage (UHVDC) transmission lines for global energy transition and climate change. We find that renewable electricity trade across large world regions via the underlying UHVDC interconnection can boost renewable electricity production and reduce 2020–2100 cumulative CO2 emissions from the power sector up to 9.8%. Financial investments in the UHVDC lines are offset in the long term by reduced investments in other electricity-generation options, including nuclear and storage. Finally, we find that renewable electricity trade can substantially reduce air pollutant emissions in importing regions.

Suggested Citation

  • Fei Guo & Bas J. Ruijven & Behnam Zakeri & Shining Zhang & Xing Chen & Changyi Liu & Fang Yang & Volker Krey & Keywan Riahi & Han Huang & Yuanbing Zhou, 2022. "Implications of intercontinental renewable electricity trade for energy systems and emissions," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 7(12), pages 1144-1156, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natene:v:7:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1038_s41560-022-01136-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41560-022-01136-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-022-01136-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41560-022-01136-0?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. Abrell, Jan & Rausch, Sebastian, 2016. "Cross-country electricity trade, renewable energy and European transmission infrastructure policy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 87-113.
    2. Trieb, Franz & Schillings, Christoph & Pregger, Thomas & O'Sullivan, Marlene, 2012. "Solar electricity imports from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 341-353.
    3. Van Hertem, Dirk & Ghandhari, Mehrdad, 2010. "Multi-terminal VSC HVDC for the European supergrid: Obstacles," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(9), pages 3156-3163, December.
    4. David L. McCollum & Wenji Zhou & Christoph Bertram & Harmen-Sytze Boer & Valentina Bosetti & Sebastian Busch & Jacques Després & Laurent Drouet & Johannes Emmerling & Marianne Fay & Oliver Fricko & Sh, 2018. "Energy investment needs for fulfilling the Paris Agreement and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(7), pages 589-599, July.
    5. Timilsina, Govinda R. & Toman, Mike, 2016. "Potential gains from expanding regional electricity trade in South Asia," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 6-14.
    6. Brinkerink, Maarten & Gallachóir, Brian Ó & Deane, Paul, 2019. "A comprehensive review on the benefits and challenges of global power grids and intercontinental interconnectors," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 274-287.
    7. Zarazua de Rubens, Gerardo & Noel, Lance, 2019. "The non-technical barriers to large scale electricity networks: Analysing the case for the US and EU supergrids," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    8. David L. McCollum & Wenji Zhou & Christoph Bertram & Harmen-Sytze Boer & Valentina Bosetti & Sebastian Busch & Jacques Després & Laurent Drouet & Johannes Emmerling & Marianne Fay & Oliver Fricko & Sh, 2018. "Author Correction: Energy investment needs for fulfilling the Paris Agreement and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 3(8), pages 699-699, August.
    9. Brand, Bernhard, 2013. "Transmission topologies for the integration of renewable power into the electricity systems of North Africa," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 155-166.
    10. G. Marangoni & M. Tavoni & V. Bosetti & E. Borgonovo & P. Capros & O. Fricko & D. E. H. J. Gernaat & C. Guivarch & P. Havlik & D. Huppmann & N. Johnson & P. Karkatsoulis & I. Keppo & V. Krey & E. Ó Br, 2017. "Sensitivity of projected long-term CO2 emissions across the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(2), pages 113-117, February.
    11. Torriti, Jacopo, 2014. "Privatisation and cross-border electricity trade: From internal market to European Supergrid?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 635-640.
    12. Arman Aghahosseini & Dmitrii Bogdanov & Christian Breyer, 2017. "A Techno-Economic Study of an Entirely Renewable Energy-Based Power Supply for North America for 2030 Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-28, August.
    13. Schlachtberger, D.P. & Brown, T. & Schramm, S. & Greiner, M., 2017. "The benefits of cooperation in a highly renewable European electricity network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 469-481.
    14. Becker, S. & Rodriguez, R.A. & Andresen, G.B. & Schramm, S. & Greiner, M., 2014. "Transmission grid extensions during the build-up of a fully renewable pan-European electricity supply," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 404-418.
    15. Joeri Rogelj & Alexander Popp & Katherine V. Calvin & Gunnar Luderer & Johannes Emmerling & David Gernaat & Shinichiro Fujimori & Jessica Strefler & Tomoko Hasegawa & Giacomo Marangoni & Volker Krey &, 2018. "Scenarios towards limiting global mean temperature increase below 1.5 °C," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 8(4), pages 325-332, April.
    16. Du, Ershun & Zhang, Ning & Hodge, Bri-Mathias & Kang, Chongqing & Kroposki, Benjamin & Xia, Qing, 2018. "Economic justification of concentrating solar power in high renewable energy penetrated power systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 222(C), pages 649-661.
    17. Lilliestam, Johan & Ellenbeck, Saskia, 2011. "Energy security and renewable electricity trade--Will Desertec make Europe vulnerable to the "energy weapon"?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(6), pages 3380-3391, June.
    18. Reichenberg, Lina & Hedenus, Fredrik & Mattsson, Niclas & Verendel, Vilhelm, 2022. "Deep decarbonization and the supergrid – Prospects for electricity transmission between Europe and China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(PE).
    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. Ken Oshiro & Shinichiro Fujimori, 2024. "Limited impact of hydrogen co-firing on prolonging fossil-based power generation under low emissions scenarios," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Onodera, Hiroaki & Delage, Rémi & Nakata, Toshihiko, 2024. "The role of regional renewable energy integration in electricity decarbonization—A case study of Japan," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 363(C).
    3. Dongsheng Zheng & Dan Tong & Steven J. Davis & Yue Qin & Yang Liu & Ruochong Xu & Jin Yang & Xizhe Yan & Guannan Geng & Huizheng Che & Qiang Zhang, 2024. "Climate change impacts on the extreme power shortage events of wind-solar supply systems worldwide during 1980–2022," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Zhang, Shuo & Yu, Yadong & Kharrazi, Ali & Ma, Tieju, 2023. "How would sustainable transformations in the electricity sector of megacities impact employment levels? A case study of Beijing," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(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. Taran Faehn & Gabriel Bachner & Robert Beach & Jean Chateau & Shinichiro Fujimori & Madanmohan Ghosh & Meriem Hamdi-Cherif & Elisa Lanzi & Sergey Paltsev & Toon Vandyck & Bruno Cunha & Rafael Garaffa , 2020. "Capturing Key Energy and Emission Trends in CGE models: Assessment of Status and Remaining Challenges," Journal of Global Economic Analysis, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Department of Agricultural Economics, Purdue University, vol. 5(1), pages 196-272, June.
    2. Pierri, Erika & Binder, Ole & Hemdan, Nasser G.A. & Kurrat, Michael, 2017. "Challenges and opportunities for a European HVDC grid," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 427-456.
    3. Rinne, Sonja, 2018. "Radioinactive: Are nuclear power plant outages in France contagious to the German electricity price?," CIW Discussion Papers 3/2018, University of Münster, Center for Interdisciplinary Economics (CIW).
    4. Hansen, Kenneth & Breyer, Christian & Lund, Henrik, 2019. "Status and perspectives on 100% renewable energy systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 471-480.
    5. Gregor Semieniuk & Emanuele Campiglio & Jean‐Francois Mercure & Ulrich Volz & Neil R. Edwards, 2021. "Low‐carbon transition risks for finance," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 12(1), January.
    6. J.-F. Mercure & P. Salas & P. Vercoulen & G. Semieniuk & A. Lam & H. Pollitt & P. B. Holden & N. Vakilifard & U. Chewpreecha & N. R. Edwards & J. E. Vinuales, 2021. "Reframing incentives for climate policy action," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(12), pages 1133-1143, December.
    7. Larissa Nogueira & Francesco Dalla Longa & Lara Aleluia Reis & Laurent Drouet & Zoi Vrontisi & Kostas Fragkiadakis & Evangelos Panos & Bob Zwaan, 2023. "A multi-model framework to assess the role of R&D towards a decarbonized energy system," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 176(7), pages 1-22, July.
    8. Gumber, Anurag & Zana, Riccardo & Steffen, Bjarne, 2024. "A global analysis of renewable energy project commissioning timelines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    9. Koltsaklis, Nikolaos E. & Nazos, Konstantinos, 2017. "A stochastic MILP energy planning model incorporating power market dynamics," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1364-1383.
    10. Ozdemir, Ali Can & Buluş, Kurtuluş & Zor, Kasım, 2022. "Medium- to long-term nickel price forecasting using LSTM and GRU networks," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    11. Backhaus, Klaus & Gausling, Philipp & Hildebrand, Luise, 2015. "Comparing the incomparable: Lessons to be learned from models evaluating the feasibility of Desertec," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 905-913.
    12. Dahlen, Niklas & Fehrenkötter, Rieke & Schreiter, Maximilian, 2024. "The new bond on the block — Designing a carbon-linked bond for sustainable investment projects," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 316-325.
    13. Elke Stehfest & Willem-Jan Zeist & Hugo Valin & Petr Havlik & Alexander Popp & Page Kyle & Andrzej Tabeau & Daniel Mason-D’Croz & Tomoko Hasegawa & Benjamin L. Bodirsky & Katherine Calvin & Jonathan C, 2019. "Key determinants of global land-use projections," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 10(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Bianco, Vincenzo & Scarpa, Federico, 2018. "Impact of the phase out of French nuclear reactors on the Italian power sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 722-734.
    15. Joëlle Noailly & Roger Smeets, 2022. "Financing Energy Innovation: Internal Finance and the Direction of Technical Change," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 83(1), pages 145-169, September.
    16. Wu, Qingyang & Wang, Yanying, 2022. "How does carbon emission price stimulate enterprises' total factor productivity? Insights from China's emission trading scheme pilots," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    17. Marco Due~nas & Antoine Mandel, 2024. "Are EU low-carbon structural funds efficient in reducing emissions?," Papers 2408.01782, arXiv.org.
    18. Pan, Xunzhang & Ma, Xueqing & Zhang, Yanru & Shao, Tianming & Peng, Tianduo & Li, Xiang & Wang, Lining & Chen, Wenying, 2023. "Implications of carbon neutrality for power sector investments and stranded coal assets in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    19. Lin, Yuanxiong & Anser, Muhammad Khalid & Peng, Michael Yao-Ping & Irfan, Muhammad, 2023. "Assessment of renewable energy, financial growth and in accomplishing targets of China's cities carbon neutrality," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1082-1091.
    20. Perdana, Sigit & Vielle, Marc, 2022. "Making the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism acceptable and climate friendly for least developed countries," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natene:v:7:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1038_s41560-022-01136-0. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    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.