The impact of the energy crisis on the UK’s net-zero transition
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Author(s)
Mersch, Matthias
Markides, Christos N
Mac Dowell, Niall
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Recent drastic increases in natural gas prices have brought into sharp focus the inherent tensions between net-zero transitions, energy security, and affordability. We investigate the impact of different fuel prices on the energy system transition, explicitly accounting for the increasingly coupled power and heating sectors, and also incorporate the emerging hydrogen sector. The aim is to identify low-regret decisions and optimal energy system transitions for different fuel prices. We observe that the evolution of the heating sector is highly sensitive to gas price, whereas the composition of the power sector is not qualitatively impacted by gas prices. We also observe that bioenergy plays an important role in the energy system transition, and the balance between gas prices and biomass prices determines the optimal technology portfolios. The future evolution of the prices of these two resources is highly uncertain, and future energy systems must be resilient to these uncertainties.
Date Issued
2023-04-21
Date Acceptance
2023-03-20
Citation
iScience, 2023, 26 (4), pp.1-24
ISSN
2589-0042
Publisher
Elsevier
Start Page
1
End Page
24
Journal / Book Title
iScience
Volume
26
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2023 The Author(s).
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Identifier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004223005680
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
106491
Date Publish Online
2023-03-23