Renewable electricity generation and transmission network developments in light of public opposition: Insights from Ireland. ESRI Working Paper No. 653 March 2020

This paper analyses how people’s attitudes towards onshore wind power and overhead transmission lines affect the costoptimal development of electricity generation mixes, under a high renewable energy policy. For that purpose, we use a power systems generation and transmission expansion planning model, combined with information on public attitudes towards energy infrastructure on the island of Ireland. Overall, households have a positive attitude towards onshore wind power but their willingness to accept wind farms near their homes tends to be low. Opposition to overhead transmission lines is even greater. This can lead to a substantial increase in the costs of expanding the power system. In the Irish case, costs escalate by more than 4.3% when public opposition is factored into the constrained optimisation of power generation and grid expansion planning across the island. This is mainly driven by the compounded effects of higher capacity investments in more expensive technologies such as offshore wind and solar photovoltaic to compensate for lower levels of onshore wind generation and grid reinforcements. The results also reveal the effect of public opposition on the value of onshore wind, via shadow prices. The higher the level of public opposition, the higher the shadow value of onshore wind. And, this starkly differs across regions: regions with more wind resource or closest to major demand centres have the highest shadow prices. The shadow costs can guide policy makers when designing incentive mechanisms to garner public support for onshore wind installations

Sustainable transformation of Israel's energy system : development of a phase model

By applying a phase model for the renewables-based energy transition in the MENA countries to Israel, the study provides a guiding vision to support the strategy development and steering of the energy transition process. The transition towards a renewable-based energy system can reduce import dependencies and increase the energy security in Israel. Key issues that need to be tackled in order to advance the energy transition in Israel are the expansion of flexibility options, discussion on the long-term role of natural gas, increasing participation and awareness, and exploring the future role of power-to-X in the energy system

Technology roadmap: solar photovoltaic energy - 2014 edition

Solar power enhances energy diversity and hedges against price volatility of fossil fuels, thus stabilising costs of electricity generation in the long term, argues this report. Overview Solar energy is widely available throughout the world and can contribute to reduced dependence on energy imports. As it entails no fuel price risk or constraints, it also improves security of supply. Solar power enhances energy diversity and hedges against price volatility of fossil fuels, thus stabilising costs of electricity generation in the long term. Solar PV entails no greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions during operation and does not emit other pollutants (such as oxides of sulphur and nitrogen); additionally, it consumes no or little water. As local air pollution and extensive use of fresh water for cooling of thermal power plants are becoming serious concerns in hot or dry regions, these benefits of solar PV become increasingly important. Key findings: Since 2010, the world has added more solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity than in the previous four decades. Total global capacity overtook 150 gigawatts (GW) in early 2014 The geographical pattern of deployment is rapidly changing. While a few European countries, led by Germany and Italy, initiated large-scale PV development, since 2013, the People’s Republic of China has led the global PV market, followed by Japan and the United States PV system prices have been divided by three in six years in most markets, while module prices have been divided by five This roadmap envisions PV’s share of global electricity reaching 16% by 2050, a significant increase from the 11% goal in the 2010 roadmap Achieving this roadmap’s vision of 4 600 GW of installed PV capacity by 2050 would avoid the emission of up to 4 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually This roadmap assumes that the costs of electricity from PV in different parts of the world will converge as markets develop, with an average cost reduction of 25% by 2020, 45% by 2030, and 65% by 2050, leading to a range of USD 40 to 160/MWh, assuming a cost of capital of 8% To achieve the vision in this roadmap, the total PV capacity installed each year needs to rise from 36 GW in 2013 to 124 GW per year on average, with a peak of 200 GW per year between 2025 and 2040 The variability of the solar resource is a challenge. All flexibility options – including interconnections, demand-side response, flexible generation, and storage –need to be developed to meet this challenge Appropriate regulatory frameworks – and well-designed electricity markets, in particular – will be critical to achieve the vision in this roadmap Levelised cost of electricity from new-built PV systems and generation by sector

Modelling District Heating in a Renewable Electricity System

With the decarbonisation of electricity generation, large scale heat pumps are becoming increasingly viable for district heating combined with thermal energy storage, district heating can provide flexibility to the electricity grid by decoupling demand from supply. This thesis examines how district heating with heat pumps and thermal energy storage can integrate with and provide a benefit to an electricity system with predominantly renewable generation. The scope of work comprises three interlinked models underpinned by the same set of meteorology data, fundamentally coupling supply and demand. First, heat load data are surveyed, and an hourly demand profile is simulated. Disaggregation of district heating loads from the national demand is accomplished via segmentation of the building stock to model heat demand at high spatiotemporal resolution. Second, a novel method of pricing hourly electricity in a zero carbon, capital-intensive renewable system with electricity storage is developed and applied to a dispatch simulation to generate hourly electricity prices. Third, a dynamic model of district heating is constructed to simulate the meeting of heat loads with different design configurations using electricity as the energy source. Model predictive control is applied with varying forecast horizons so as to minimise the cost of electricity to meet the heat demand given a time series of hourly prices and consequently optimising the capacity of thermal energy storage. It was found that a thermal energy storage capacity equivalent to 1.3% of annual demand is sufficient to minimise operating costs. Finally, the potential impact of district heating on balancing the electricity system is analysed and an equivalence between thermal and electric storage is examined. While this is highly dependent on annual conditions, it can be as much as 3.5 units of thermal storage for every unit of electrical grid storage on the system. This could potentially reduce the investment in grid storage by £36 billion, underlining the significant financial benefits of thermal storage to the whole system. The research highlights the important potential of district heating to the UK’s energy system strategy

Sustainable seabed mining: guidelines and a new concept for Atlantis II Deep

The feasibility of exploiting seabed resources is subject to the engineering solutions, and economic prospects. Due to rising metal prices, predicted mineral scarcities and unequal allocations of resources in the world, vast research programmes on the exploration and exploitation of seabed minerals are presented in 1970s. Very few studies have been published after the 1980s, when predictions were not fulfilled. The attention grew back in the last decade with marine mineral mining being in research and commercial focus again and the first seabed mining license for massive sulphides being granted in Papua New Guinea’s Exclusive Economic Zone.Research on seabed exploitation and seabed mining is a complex transdisciplinary field that demands for further attention and development. Since the field links engineering, economics, environmental, legal and supply chain research, it demands for research from a systems point of view. This implies the application of a holistic sustainability framework of to analyse the feasibility of engineering systems. The research at hand aims to close this gap by developing such a framework and providing a review of seabed resources. Based on this review it identifies a significant potential for massive sulphides in inactive hydrothermal vents and sediments to solve global resource scarcities. The research aims to provide background on seabed exploitation and to apply a holistic systems engineering approach to develop general guidelines for sustainable seabed mining of polymetallic sulphides and a new concept and solutions for the Atlantis II Deep deposit in the Red Sea.The research methodology will start with acquiring a broader academic and industrial view on sustainable seabed mining through an online survey and expert interviews on seabed mining. In addition, the Nautilus Minerals case is reviewed for lessons learned and identification of challenges. Thereafter, a new concept for Atlantis II Deep is developed that based on a site specific assessment.The research undertaken in this study provides a new perspective regarding sustainable seabed mining. The main contributions of this research are the development of extensive guidelines for key issues in sustainable seabed mining as well as a new concept for seabed mining involving engineering systems, environmental risk mitigation, economic feasibility, logistics and legal aspects