Download document () of 20
Send email
Download
You have exceeded the download limit
The accelerating shift towards the use of renewables to generate the bulk of electricity will create significant economic, technological and policy challenges for the energy industry and European governments.
This means we must start planning now for how to manage today’s growing need for short term flexibility to better match variable renewable generation with demand on an intra-day basis. This means developing markets that incentivize private investment in proven technologies such as frequency stabilization and on-site energy storage. The need to resolve the requirement for inter-seasonal flexibility will also become a pressing requirement from the mid-2020s onwards.
As EV concentration increases, EV charging infrastructure deployment runs into existing grid limitations in the shape of sub-stations, transformers and cables sizing, as it has been doing in Norway in recent years. Being able to time EV charging according to the energy system requirements will significantly lower the system costs by avoiding grid upgrades and providing flexibility to absorb variable renewables cost-effectively, as demonstrated in the BNEF study on high renewables energy systems flexibility solutions sponsored by Eaton and Statkraft.
A large increase of demand-response, storage and smart charging of EVs can substantially mitigate intermittency issues in a high renewables energy system. However, it cannot completely address it – there will still be weeks and months of low variable renewables (solar and wind) production that require long-term backup capacity. Other uses for fossil fuels will also remain such as petrochemicals, or some types of transport.
A zero-carbon scenario would require lower carbon substitutes for fossil fuels given doubts about the cost and viability of nuclear power and the need to retain dispatchable on-demand power sources for long periods as well as light-weight, dense energy sources for specific use cases. Possible substitutes could include synthetic fuels, based on a combination of Hydrogen obtained from water hydrolysis (itself rendered inexpensive by surplus renewables generation) and captured / recovered CO2. However, we won’t reach this point for some time so research and early-stage investment into such technologies would require sustained public support.
