Costs of Regional Equity and Autarky in a Renewable European Power System

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how different levels of regional equity and self-sufficiency in a renewable European power system affect overall costs and system composition, highlighting trade-offs between cost efficiency and regional fairness.

Contribution

It introduces an analysis of cost impacts and system changes when promoting regional equity and autarky in a fully renewable European power system using the PyPSA-Eur model.

Findings

Cost-optimal solutions are highly inhomogeneous geographically.

More uniform expansion plans can be achieved with less than 4% additional cost.

Autarkic solutions without transmission are significantly more expensive.

Abstract

Social acceptance is a multifaceted consideration when planning future energy systems, yet often challenging to address endogeneously. One key aspect regards the spatial distribution of investments. Here, I evaluate the cost impact and changes in optimal system composition when development of infrastructure is more evenly shared among countries and regions in a fully renewable European power system. I deliberately deviate from the resource-induced cost optimum towards more equitable and self-sufficient solutions in terms of power generation. The analysis employs the open optimisation model PyPSA-Eur. I show that cost optimal solutions lead to very inhomogenous distributions of assets, but more uniform expansion plans can be achieved on a national level at little additional expense below 4%. Yet completely autarkic solutions, without power transmission, appear much more costly.