Regionalized Potential Assessment of Variable Renewable Energy Sources in Europe

The transition of Europe’s nations towards an increased share of variable renewable energy sources implies fundamental knowledge of the regional distribution of power generation in the near future. Bottom-up geo-spatial analyses are carried out to calculate the technically available potential of renewable energy sources in Europe. Calculated potential is then rated by energy carrier dependent factors. Evaluation is carried out for the 16 countries considered in the project eXtremOS. In total, 31.5 PWh of renewable energy potential is identified, with 1.2 PWh rooftop solar, 2.7 PWh offsite solar, 14 PWh onshore wind and 13.5 PWh offshore wind energy. Presented results have not yet been subject to economic influence factors. The high resolution spatial analysis brings up small scale regional effects, due to very different conditions of available areas, wind speed etc. Such local effects provide a strong benefit for e.g. national power grid planning.