Renewable energy roadmap for central Europe until 2050: A scenario based techno-economic analysis

Abstract

European Union has set ambitious goals to reduce the GHG emissions by 20% until 2020 and 80% until 2050 compared to 1990 level for environmental and economic sustainability. Because of geopolitical reason, Central Europe can play a crucial role in achieving these targets. This work mainly focuses on Central Europe, namely, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. All these countries have great differences on how they generate their electricity and different plans on how to tackle the upcoming environmental challenges. Considering the respective Government long-term plans and European Union directives, four scenarios are developed by using LEAP energy system model. The planning period is 40 years from 2010 to 2050. The model results suggest that targeted GHG emission reduction is possible if 100% renewable energy policy is adopted. In case of advanced countries, like Germany, the target is achievable until 2050. But for less developed countries in Central Europe, like Poland the target of 100% renewable takes more time because of their heavy dependency on fossil fueled power generation.