Wirkungen des Ausbaus erneuerbarer Energien

Impact of renewable energy sources

Technologische und ökonomische Wechselwirkungen zwischen der Elektromobilität und dem Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien

Work package 3: Interactions of RE expansion and electric mobility

Technological and economic interactions between electric mobility and RE expansion

The German government’s plan to develop electric mobility results in interactions with the use of renewable energies in the electricity sector. Future fleets of plug-in electric cars will be connected to the power grid at least temporarily. Charging these vehicles could either be done in an uncontrolled way or in an optimized manner. In addition, a bi-directional grid connection of these vehicles could enable power to be fed back into the grid (vehicle to grid). This can cause technical and economic interactions.

Electric cars increase the consumption of electricity. This can have different impacts on the power market in terms of volume, price and distributional effects depending on the charging strategy used. The flexibility of the electricity system could be greatly increased if future electric fleets were able to be integrated into the grid via optimized charging or a vehicle-to-grid concept, for example as controllable grid loads, distributed electricity storage or suppliers of system services. Electric vehicles could then contribute to the further integration of variable renewable electricity generators such as wind and photovoltaic into the electricity system. 

The volume, price and distributional effects of the interaction of electric vehicles with the power market are investigated using quantitative analyses made with an extended power station utilisation and storage model of the DIW Berlin. Of particular interest is how the expansion of electric mobility in different scenarios affects the load and profitability of renewable electricity generators, the demand for integration and flexibility options and the costs of RE development. Other possible synergies between the expansion of renewable energies and that of electric mobility are found in the substitution of biofuels with renewables-based electricity.

Working papers

  • ongoing

Wirkungen des Ausbaus erneuerbarer Energien

Impact of renewable energy sources