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Reacting to Changing Paradigms: How and Why to Reform Electricity Markets

The energy crisis and the accelerated transition to climate neutrality result in a shift from the traditional energy trilemma to an “energy quartet” across Europe. Firstly, the criteria of affordability, previously focused on short-term price developments, broadens to reliable affordability including in crises. Secondly, clean energy traditionally focused on clean production now extends to clean energy ...

Planning Macro-energy Systems with Multiple Climatic Years: A Quadratic Trust-region Approach for Benders Decomposition

This paper applies Benders decomposition to two-stage stochastic problems for energy planning with multiple climatic years, a key problem for the design of renewable energy systems. First, we implement Benders decomposition with existing enhancements suited for the characteristics of the problem, a simple continuous masterproblem and fewbut large sub-problems. Next, we develop a novel trust-region ...

Power Sector Effects of Alternative Production and Storage Options for Green Hydrogen

The use of green hydrogen can support the decarbonization of sectors which are difficult to electrify, such as industry or heavy transport. Yet, the wider power sector effects of providing green hydrogen are not well understood so far. We use an open-source electricity sector model to investigate potential power sector interactions of three alternative supply chains for green hydrogen in Germany in ...

Electricity supply in Germany can be secured without Russian supplies and nuclear energy; the 2030 coal-phase out remains possible

The European Union has increased pressure on Russia by enacting a coal embargo. Following a transition period, Russian coal imports will end in August 2022. Recent studies show that Germany will be able to substitute Russian supplies with imports from other countries by summer 2022. However, with the looming threat of a Russian gas supply stop, plans must be developed to ensure security of supply....

Overcoming the Disconnect between Energy System and Climate Modeling

Energy supply security in Germany can be guaranteed even without natural gas from Russia

The Russian war on Ukraine and Germany’s dependence on Russian gas require a rethink of German energy supplies. While there is a heated debate about an immediate energy embargo, Russia could also stop its supplies at any time. To date, Germany has purchased around 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia. DIW Berlin has developed scenarios for how the German energy system could become...

Strommarkt erklärt: Preisbildung, Preiskrise und die „Strompreisbremse“: Ein Beitrag zur aktuellen Debatte über Eingriffe in den Strommarkt

Decentralized Energy: How 100% Renewable Energy Regions Affect Households’ Saving Behavior

This paper focuses on decentralized energy in Germany and how households’ environmental behavior in terms of energy consumption is shaped in these contexts. It sets out to gain a more precise understanding of whether decentralized energy initiatives are a good tool to promote the adoption of renewable energies and engagement in other sustainable behaviors to mitigate global warming. This study would ...

Heating and Electricity Expenses: Saving Incentives Not Impacting Basic Income Recipients

Basic income benefits cover recipients’ actual heating expenses as long as they are not unusually high. In contrast, their electricity expenses are only covered via a lump sum at the standard rate. Thus, basic income recipients have weaker incentives for reducing their heating expenses than for reducing their electricity expenses. Using Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) data, it can be seen that basic income ...

Replacing Gas Boilers with Heat Pumps Is the Fastest Way to Cut German Gas Consumption

The supply security of fossil gas has been disrupted by the Russo-Ukrainian War. Decisions to relocate the production and transport of gas have become so urgent that new long-term contracts are imminent that undermine the Paris Climate Agreement. Here, we simulate how quickly the addition of renewable electricity and the installation of heat pumps can substitute enough gas to reduce supply risk, while ...