Role of power to liquids and biomass to liquids in a nearly renewable energy system

In order to achieve significant greenhouse gas emission reductions, decarbonisation of alleconomic sectors must be considered. Here, the authors study the provision ofrenewable energy for the power, district heating, transport and industrialsectors in nine North European countries by integrating a large amount of windand solar power into the system with power‐to‐gas and power‐to‐fuel plantsenabling balancing and sector coupling. Simultaneous optimisation of plantcapacities and operation was performed. Two different synthetic liquid fuelproduction pathways were compared. The cost of synthetic liquid fuel remained,depending on the production pathway and amount, 30–120% higher than estimatedfossil alternative cost. Biomass potential emerged as a limiting factor withhigh shares of biomass‐based synthetic liquid fuel production. The need forenergy storage system was estimated. The total optimal capacity of syntheticnatural gas, hydrogen, synthetic liquid fuel, and heat storages varied between37 and 54 TWh (1.7–2.5% of energy demand) depending on the scenario, whenemergency stocks were not included. The cost of energy storages remained smallcompared to the total system cost, with heat storages exhibiting the highestcost.