ONE100: Austria's Sustainable Energy System - 100% Decarbonized

The Economically Optimized Energy System for a Climate Neutral Austria

The objective of the study is to design an economically optimized decarbonized energy system using a powerful energy-economic optimization model, in which the entire energy demand of Austria can be met in a sustainable, affordable and secure manner with an environmentally sound use of exclusively renewable energy sources and the application of CO2-neutral technologies.

In Austria, about 80% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the sectors of transport, buildings, energy and industry and thus come from the "energy system". It is therefore also the responsibility of the operators of the energy infrastructure to offer sustainable solutions for decarbonizing the energy system in order to achieve climate neutrality quickly and in an economically efficient manner. Based on this responsibility, we - Austrian electricity and gas grid operators together with AGGM Austrian Gas Grid Management AG and APG Austrian Power Grid AG - initiated the research project "ONE100 - Austria's sustainable energy system - 100% decarbonized".

Without specifying predefined scenarios that reflect certain expectations, an ideal-typical, 100% decarbonized and optimized energy system for Austria was calculated under the forward-looking approach to energy system modeling based on the following premises:

  • Greenfield approach
  • Input parameters: Regionalized useful energy demand for all sectors, potentials for renewable energy production., costs and efficiencies for more than 150 technology options, raw material and import prices for renewable energy sources, supply and demand profiles of a representative climate year.
  • Simultaneous optimization of the entire energy system in an integrated model
  • Openness to technology and results

The result:

 

With regard to the transformation of the energy system, the calculation results from ONE100 provide essential bases for decision-making and discussion on how the decarbonization goals can be achieved in a cost-optimal manner. In addition to demonstrating the economic viability of using all regional renewable energy potentials, from wind to solar, geothermal, and wet and solid biomass, it also quantifies the corresponding orders of magnitude for the required expansion of renewable energy sources and the necessary establishment of efficient conversion, transport, storage, and end-use technologies. On the one hand, the existing energy system must be replaced by a significantly transformed energy system. On the other hand, there are also many elements already in place whose value can already be used on the transformation path.

Enormous investments and the further development of innovative technologies will be necessary for the energy system transformation to succeed. It is therefore necessary to,

  • create an investment-friendly environment and incentives for all energy carriers and technologies that can contribute to decarbonizing the energy system, so that the existing potentials can be used in a way that makes economic sense and the respective strengths of the energy carriers, technologies and infrastructures can work effectively.

  • make the regulatory framework clear and sufficiently flexible so that the high-performance transport infrastructure can integrate renewable energies into the energy system and enable sector coupling.

  • intensify research & development for the further development and optimization of innovative and energy-efficient technologies in order to be able to leverage efficiency gains and decarbonization potentials.

More info can be found here:

Project Profile:

Project Management:    AGGM, DI Helmut Wernhart, helmut.wernhart@aggm.at

Project participants:       The ONE100 study was prepared by Wagner & Elbling GmbH (www.wecom.at) on behalf of AGGM Austrian Gas Grid Management AG, Austrian Power Grid AG, Energienetze Steiermark GmbH, Gas Connect Austria GmbH, Netz Burgenland GmbH, Netz Niederösterreich GmbH, Netz Oberösterreich GmbH, Salzburg Netz GmbH, TIGAS Erdgas Tirol GmbH, Trans Austria Gasleitung GmbH, Vorarlberger Energienetze GmbH, Wiener Netze GmbH.

Project duration:             11/2019 - 8/2021