The transition towards a renewable energy system is essential in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The increase in the share of variable renewable energy sources (VRES), which mainly comprise wind and solar energy, necessitates storage technologies by which the intermittency of VRES can be compensated for. Although hydrogen has been envisioned to play a significant role as a promising alternative energy carrier in a future European VRES-based energy concept, the optimal design of this system remains uncertain. In this analysis, a hydrogen infrastructure is posited that would meet the electricity and hydrogen demand for a 100% renewable energy-based European energy system in the context of 2050. The overall system design is optimized by minimizing the total annual cost. Onshore and offshore wind energy, open-field photovoltaics (PV), rooftop PV and hydro energy, as well as biomass, are the technologies employed for electricity generation. The electricity generated is then either transmitted through the electrical grid or converted into hydrogen by means of electrolyzers and then distributed through hydrogen pipelines. Battery, hydrogen vessels and salt caverns are considered as potential storage technologies. In the case of a lull, stored hydrogen can be re-electrified to generate electricity to meet demand during that time period. For each location, eligible technologies are introduced, as well as their maximum capacity and hourly demand profiles, in order to build the optimization model. In addition, a generation time series for VRES has been exogenously derived for the model. The generation profiles of wind energy have been investigated in detail by considering future turbine designs with high spatial resolution. In terms of salt cavern storage, the technical potential for hydrogen storage is defined in the system as the maximum allowable capacity per region. Whether or not a technology is installed in a region, the hourly operation of these technologies, as well as the cost of each technology, are obtained within the optimization results. It is revealed that a 100 percent renewable energy system is feasible and would meet both electricity demand and hydrogen demand in Europe.
The Impact of Temporal Complexity Reduction on a 100% Renewable European Energy System with Hydrogen Infrastructure
