Environmental Studies and Forestry

Regional impacts of electricity system transition in Central Europe until 2035

J. Sasse and E. Trutnevyte

This study by Jan-Philipp Sasse and Evelina Trutnevyte explores how achieving electricity sector targets in Central Europe could distribute benefits and burdens at a sub-national level. They model 100 scenarios to evaluate the impacts on costs, jobs, emissions, and land use, finding that optimizing costs, equality, and renewable generation leads to conflicting pathways.

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Abstract

Achieving current electricity sector targets in Central Europe (Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Poland, and Switzerland) will redistribute regional benefits and burdens at the sub-national level. Limiting emerging regional inequalities would foster implementation success. This study models 100 scenarios of electricity generation, storage, and transmission for 2035 across 650 regions, quantifying regional impacts on system costs, employment, emissions, and land use. Trade-offs are highlighted among scenarios that minimize system costs, maximize regional equality, and maximize renewable electricity generation, demonstrating that these three aims have vastly different implementation pathways and cannot be simultaneously optimized.

Publisher

Nature Communications

Published On

Oct 02, 2020

Authors

Jan-Philipp Sasse, Evelina Trutnevyte