Submitted:
24 May 2019
Posted:
28 May 2019
You are already at the latest version
Abstract
Electric vehicles, being able to reduce pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions and shift the economy away from oil products, can play a major role in the transition towards low-carbon energy systems. However, the related increase in electricity demand inevitably affects the strategic planning of the overall energy system as well as the definition of the optimal power generation mix. With this respect, the impact of electric vehicles may vary significantly depending on the composition of both total primary energy supply and electricity generation. In this study, Italy and Germany are compared to highlight how a similarity in their renewable shares not necessarily leads to a CO2 emissions reduction. Different energy scenarios are simulated with the help of EnergyPLAN software assuming a progressive increase in renewable energy sources capacity and electric vehicles penetration. Results show that, for the German case, the additional electricity required leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions only if renewable capacity increases significantly, whereas the Italian energy system benefits from transport electrification even at low renewable capacity. Smart charging strategies are also found to foster renewable integration; however, power curtailments are still significant at high renewable capacity in the absence of large-scale energy storage systems.
Keywords:
large-scale RES
; curtailments
; electric vehicles
; EnergyPLAN
; integrated energy systems analysis
; CO2 emissions
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
