Impacts of Stratospheric Aerosol Injection on Renewable Energy Systems

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential impacts of stratospheric aerosol injection on renewable energy systems, revealing minor capacity shifts and emphasizing the importance of system flexibility in climate intervention strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a methodology to assess how aerosol injection affects renewable energy potentials and system flexibility under climate mitigation scenarios.

Findings

PV potential reductions up to 12% in Northern Europe during summer

Renewable energy systems largely absorb potential reductions with minor capacity shifts

System flexibility is crucial for mitigating impacts and avoiding design errors

Abstract

Climate change is one of the 21st centurys major challenges. However, the progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions is perceived as being too slow. Hence, more radical technologies such as stratospheric aerosol injection are entering discussions to limit climate change. This study presents a methodology for evaluating the effects of injecting 20Mt of SO$_2$ into the atmosphere annually on the global radiative balance, photovoltaic potentials, and renewable energy systems under a targeted temperature reduction of 2{\deg}C. Results show that the average annual reduction of PV potentials ranges from 0.25% to 4% up to 12% in Northern Europe during summer. The modeled renewable energy systems largely absorb these reductions resulting in minor capacity shifts with larger changes confined to a few systems. The results show that the inherent flexibility of large scale renewable energy systems helps mitigating changes in cost, but understanding this flexibility is crucial to avoid errors in design.