Buffering volatility: A study on the limits of Germany's energy revolution

Abstract

is gratefully acknowledged. Helmut Alt, Ralph Schuster and Christoph Weissbart kindly provided background data and information. The author is emeritus professor at Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich. He has no financial interests in the nuclear, fossil fuel or green energy industries nor is he affiliated with a political party. He wishes to thank the editors and three anonymous referees for their extremely useful advice. The paper is dedicated to Wolfgang Meister who has served the ifo Institute for many years with commitment, precision and care and who is now retiring. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Buffering Volatility: Storage Investments and Technology-Specific Renewable Energy Support

“…seasons (for example, by either shifting solar generation from day to night or from summer to winter, or wind generation from off-peak to peak hours). 1 Much of the academic literature and ongoing discussions among policymakers have focused on the question how energy storage can serve as a buffering mechanism to cope with the volatility and system integration costs induced by intermittent RE sources (Hirth, 2015;Gowrisankaran et al, 2016;Sinn, 2017;Zerrahn et al, 2018). At the same time, there are considerable uncertainties as well as concerns about the costs, availability, and potentials of future storage technologies, in particular when deployed at the large scales required for deep decarbonization.…”

Peak-load pricing with different types of dispatchability

“…The integration of a large share of renewables into the electricity system poses a major challenge for a transition to a low-carbon economy. Generation of crucial renewable technologies like wind generators or photovoltaic (PV) power stations can be highly fluctuating due to weather conditions in many parts of the world, and electricity is difficult to store (with current technologies, hydropower at ap-propriate geographical conditions being the exception; see, e.g., Luo et al 2015;Gimeno-Gutiérrez and Lacal-Arántegui 2015;Sinn 2017). Thus, an increasing share of fluctuating renewables can cause additional electricity system costs (Lamont, 2008;Hirth, 2013;Reichelstein and Sahoo, 2015).…”

“…In diurnal, weekly, and annual cycles, electricity load changes considerably between peak-load and off-peak periods. A large share of electricity demand is not elastic, and it is typically very costly to store electricity (battery storage is currently not a large-scale option (see, e.g., Luo et al, 2015), while pumped hydropower is, if admitted by the geographical conditions (see, e.g., Gimeno-Gutiérrez and Lacal-Arántegui, 2015;Sinn, 2017)). Moreover, there can be unforeseen disruptions of single power plants.…”

Forecasting in Blockchain-Based Local Energy Markets

“…The "Energiewende", or energy transition, is a radical transformation of Germany's energy sector towards carbon free energy production. This energy revolution led in recent years to widespread installation of renewable energy generators [1,2]. In 2017, more than 1.6 million photovoltaic micro-generation units were already installed in Germany [3].…”