Development of regional and Pan-European guidelines for more efficient integration of renewable energy into future infrastructure

In the SUSPLAN project, nine different regions have been selected throughout Europe for comprehensive in-depth analyses of long-term grid integration of renewable electricity, heat and gas generation technologies. These analyses not only deal with future renewable deployment scenarios in different European regions up to the year 2050 but also take into account and quantify
the corresponding grid infrastructure needs and cost (electricity, heat and gas grids) necessary to “absorb” different degrees of penetration of renewable generation. The major objective of the regional scenario studies has not been to describe the entire European territory in geographic terms but to study renewable grid infrastructure integration in completely different energy systems described by a variety of different dimensions. Moreover, the manifoldness of these dimensions has been the major selection criterion of a particular SUSPLAN region. Among others, selection criteria incorporate varying degrees of severity in geographical, structural, technical, economical,
institutional, and political respect.