Wind-solar technological, spatial and temporal complementarities in Europe: a portfolio approach
File(s)
OA Location
Author(s)
Prol, Javier Lopez
Paz, Fernando de Llano
Calvo-Silvosa, Anxo
Pfenninger, Stefan
Staffell, Iain
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Climate change and geopolitical risks call for the rapid transformation of electricity systems worldwide, with Europe at the forefront. Wind and solar are the lowest cost, lowest risk, and cleanest energy sources, but their variability poses integration challenges. Combining both technologies and integrating regions with dissimilar generation patterns optimizes the trade-off between maximizing energy output and minimizing its variability, which respectively give the lowest levelized cost and lowest integration cost. We apply the Markowitz mean-variance framework to a rich multi-decade dataset of wind and solar productivity to quantify the potential benefits of spatially integration of renewables across European countries at hourly, daily and monthly timescales. We find that optimal cross-country coordination of wind and solar capacities across Europe’s integrated electricity system increases capacity factor by 22% while reducing hourly variability by 26%. We show limited benefits to solar integration due to consistent output profiles across Europe. Greater wind integration yields larger benefits due to the diversity of regional weather patterns. This framework shows the importance of considering renewable projects not in isolation, but as interconnected parts of a pan-continental system. Our results can guide policymakers towards strategic energy plans that reduce system-wide costs of renewable electricity, accelerating the clean energy transition.
Date Issued
2024-04-01
Date Acceptance
2024-01-13
Citation
Energy, 2024, 292
ISSN
0360-5442
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Energy
Volume
292
Copyright Statement
© 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
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Subjects
ALLOCATION
Decarbonization
DEPLOYMENT
ELECTRICITY
ENERGY
Energy & Fuels
Energy transition
Integration costs
Integration of electricity markets
Inttermitency
LCOE
MODEL
OUTPUT
Physical Sciences
POWER
REANALYSIS
Science & Technology
Solar
SYSTEM LCOE
Technology
Thermodynamics
Variability
Variable renewable energy
WEATHER
Wind
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
130348
Date Publish Online
2024-01-17