Energy strategies Europe and Germany (ESED)
This group is part of PIK's Research Domain III and was founded in autumn 2011.
Research Focus
Climate change mitigation and the strategies for the transformation of the energy system are closely related not only under technological aspects but also on the policy side. This becomes obvious in German debate about the nuclear phase-out and the energy transition (“Energiewende”), and also on the European level. Here different policies combining climate change mitigation and technological aspects of the energy system are already in place, such as combining the CO2 reduction target with technology targets for increasing the share of renewables and decreasing primary energy use (the so-called 20-20-20 target).
The ESED group focuses on this very particular interplay between technologies and policies for mitigation and analyses the transformation of the European and German energy system in the long-term perspective until 2050. A special focus is on the integration of renewable energy sources into the system, e.g. the level of regional and technological integration that is required to meet ambitious mitigation targets in the long-term. The group aims at providing the integrated perspective of climate change mitigation and long-term energy scenarios.
Key research questions
- Which technological solutions and policy instruments are required for the transformation of the European energy system and which are central assumptions for the success?
- Which level of integration of the European energy supply is required, especially in the electricity sector, to reach ambitious climate change mitigation targets?
- What are the costs, benefits and trade-offs of the German energy transition? How can this energy transition in Germany be integrated into a broader European perspective?
Tools
The tools we use are mainly model-based, e.g. the coupled energy-system macro-economic model REMIND-D for Germany or the EU electricity sector model LIMES including transmission lines and storage. The assessment of different scenarios and their transition pathways is an integral part of our research. As transparency is one important cornerstone for social acceptance of the transformation of the energy system, we involve stakeholders, policy makers and experts from different fields in the scenario building process and during the outreach phase.
Team:
Brigitte Knopf (Group leader)
Eva Schmid
Michael Pahle
Oliver Tietjen
Projects:
The nuclear phase-out in Germany: a study by PIK and University of Leipzig
