The overall aim of this project is to improve and coordinate energy system modelling across Europe and provide open scientific evidence and research-based results that facilitate ambitious emissions reductions for a clean energy transition (CET), while incorporating the measures suggested in REPowerEU and recent policy suggestions of the Fit for 55 package and the Net Zero Industrial act.
The objectives of this project are:
- To develop robust pathways for the European energy system that meet climate targets towards net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and consider current policies like the REPowerEU plan.
- To provide feedback and advice to the National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) of the individual EU countries.
- To improve the toolbox for conducting energy transition studies at both European and national level, which can support NECP generation, evaluation and future updates.
- To publish consistent energy system modelling datasets and scenario projections at both European and national level.
- To strengthen the coordination between national energy plans and EU-wide transition goals.
The project will use the high science capability of the European Energy Research Alliance Centre of Excellence on Energy Transition Modelling (EERA CoE-ETM) group and bring together Europe's leading modelling research community in a joint effort to support an accelerated decrease in fossil fuel import dependency in the context of REPowerEU while aiming for emissions reductions in line with the Fit for 55 targets and the net-zero goal by 2050.
Based on the existing, open Clean Energy scenario for 2050 from the H2020 project openENTRANCE, an adaptation including the REPowerEU plan will be made and analysed for the European energy system. This top-down result will be a framework for the bottom-up analyses in 9 case studies focusing on specific countries, regions, sectors, or topics. The scenario developed in the pan-European study will also be used in the case studies, whose results will be compared to the NECPs of the respective countries.
The case studies will add new knowledge about the feasibility of the pan-European pathways, provide NECP feedback and advice, address transnational collaboration opportunities and benefits, and give modelling insights on pan-European and national levels. An analysis will identify which part of each case study could be adapted to other countries and incorporated in a methodology for NECP iterations. Based on this qualitative and quantitative comparison, an adjusted set of NECPs for the respective countries, along with adjusted capacities for the energy sectors and geographical areas used in the case studies, will be fed back to the European data scenario set. The regional results will be used to conduct a second pan-European study of the adjusted Clean Energy scenario for 2050, including the updated NECPs and capacities. The two pan-European studies can give insight into the costs, impacts, and consequences of national energy and climate plans, as opposed to a pan-European plan, and how these can be moderated to improve the EU’s Road to climate neutrality.
Research partners:
- Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Technológicas (CIEMAT)
- Kadir Has University (KHAS)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung GMBH (UFZ)
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt EV (DLR)
- E3-Modelling A.E. (E3M)
- Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
- Technische Universitaet Berlin (TUB)
- Laboratorio Nacional de Energia e Geologia I.P. (LNEG)
- Institute for Energy Technology (IFE)
- Lulea Tekniska Universitet (LTU)
- ELECTRICITE DE FRANCE (EDF)
- SOLATOM CSP S.L (SOLATOM)
- Greengoat Hallbarhetsbyra AB (GREENGOAT)
- Power Circle AB (POWER CIRCLE)
Co-funding industry partners:
- STATKRAFT AS (STATKRAFT)
- Hafslund Eco Vannkraft AS (HEV)
- GASSCO AS (GASSCO AS)
- Equinor Energy AS (EQN)
Advisory partners:
This is a Clean Energy Transition Partnership-prosjekt – The Norwegian part of the project is organised as a Collaborative and Knowledge-building Project partly funded by the Research Council of Norway.