Strategic uses for ancillary bioenergy in a carbon-neutral and fossil-free 2050 European energy system

Biomass is a growing renewable energy source in Europe and is envisioned to play a role for realising carbon neutrality, predominantly using dedicated energy crops. However, dedicated biomass is controversial for reasons including its competition with food production or its land-use and emissions impacts. Here we examine the potential role of a...

From Natural Gas to Hydrogen: The energy price implications of infrastructural investments based on a shadow price approach

Climate change, unfavorable geopolitical developments and resource scarcity pushes the fossil fuel based energy sector in the direction of renewable, carbon-neutral resources. The volatile nature of these, however, created new, technical needs for increased storage capacity and interconnectedness of demand and supporting grid, providing...

Using energy carrier price information to understand trade-offs between different configurations of a fully sector-coupled energy system model

Although there is a common understanding that the use of variable renewable energy sources (VRES) is needed in our collective attempt to decarbonise society, the type of technology that we should deploy, and where is not so clear. Stakeholders from real-world projects use the outcomes from optimisation models to aid their decision-making process...

Electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen in the Dutch energy system: A structural-functional TIS analysis

Due to the growing share of renewable energy sources (RESs) to counter global warming and fossil fuel depletion, the energy sector is electrifying at an increasing pace. However, not all sectors can electrify fully or at an even speed. The industry sector for instance, is heavily reliant on fossil fuelled feedstocks. Power-to-X is named in...

Linear flow modelling of an integrated energy system on a national scale in 2050

An increasing part of European electricity is provided by renewable sources, whose output varies considerably. In order to offset these variations, gas can be used as an auxiliary source of energy for power production, but extra power can also be used to produce hydrogen or methane for storage. As a consequence, gas and power networks are...

Impact of mass-scale deployment of electric vehicles and benefits of smart charging across all European countries

The mass-scale integration of electric vehicles into the power system is a key pillar of the European energy transition agenda. Yet, the extent to which such integration would represent a burden for the power system of each member country is still an unanswered question. This is mainly due to a lack of accurate and context-specific...

Diversity of options to eliminate fossil fuels and reach carbon neutrality across the entire European energy system

Disagreements persist on how to design a self-sufficient, carbon-neutral European energy system. To explore the diversity of design options, we develop a high-resolution model of the entire European energy system and produce 441 technically feasible system designs that are within 10% of the optimal economic cost. We show that a wide range of...

Solid Oxide Cell based system for Sector Coupling Applications: System Design & Techno-economic Analysis

The energy transition towards a fossil fuel free society presents ambitious challenges ahead. The highly potential renewable energy sources are becoming competitive and increasingly adopted for power generation, while for sectors such as residential, industrial or transportation still solutions have to be found. Sector coupling and energy...

Fuel cell electric vehicles and hydrogen balancing 100 percent renewable and integrated national transportation and energy systems

Future national electricity, heating, cooling and transport systems need to reach zero emissions. Significant numbers of back-up power plants as well as large-scale energy storage capacity are required to guarantee the reliability of energy supply in 100 percent renewable energy systems. Electricity can be partially converted into hydrogen,...

The Impact of System Integration on System Costs of a Neighborhood Energy and Water System

The fossil-based energy system is transitioning towards a renewable energy system. One important aspect is the spatial and temporal mismatch between intermitted supply and continuous demand. To ensure a reliable and affordable energy system, we propose an integrated system approach that integrates electricity production, mobility, heating of...

Sector coupling and batteries as flexibility options in the 2050 renewable power system: An assessment of North West Europe and the Netherlands with the IRENA FlexTool

To meet the goal of the European Union of becoming climate neutral in 2050, the Netherlands and North West Europe will integrate more and more variable renewable energy sources (VRE) into their power system. The uncertain weather conditions on which the VRE are dependent, will increase the need for a more flexible power system. An important...

Identification of a Validation Method for Open Source Simulation Tools and Application of Said Method to the MVS: Multi-Vector Simulator - Sector Coupled Systems

Traditionally, the different energy sectors, such as electricity and heat, are planned and operated separately and independently from each other. In the 1990s, electricity generation in Europe was dominated by conventional fuel sources like coal and oil, followed by gas. Due to the eventual depletion of those sources, and to escape from the...

Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle as a Power Plant: Techno-Economic Scenario Analysis of a Renewable Integrated Transportation and Energy System for Smart Cities in Two Climates

Renewable, reliable, and affordable future power, heat, and transportation systems require efficient and versatile energy storage and distribution systems. If solar and wind electricity are the only renewable energy sources, what role can hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) have in providing year-round 100% renewable, reliable, and...

Coupling Power and Heat Sectors as a Flexibility Option

The energy transition is the transformation of the energy system and the main energy resources from fossil-based to zero-carbon resources. Decarbonization of the end-use sectors and the integration of the variable renewable energy (VRE) sources are the main challenges of the transition. In the Netherlands, the heat sector depends on natural gas...

Integration of Power-to-Gas Conversion into Dutch Electrical Ancillary Services Markets

This paper investigates the viability of the integration of demand side response of large scale electrolyser facilities into electrical ancillary services markets. A review of the current structure and mechanisms of balancing markets, voltage control and congestion management in the Netherlands is presented, taking into consideration future...