Interregional power transmission: a component in planning for renewable energy technologies

We discuss the role played by interregional power transmission on the basis of recent scenario work. In a project dealing with long-term planning for energy efficiency and renewable energy in Europe [described thoroughly in 1-4], we modelled a scenario for the present 15 EU countries' energy system in 2050. The basis for the scenario is the concept of "fair pricing" for energy services, meaning that the price of energy should reflect all externalities, but not otherwise be taxed or subsidised. The project assessed resource availability and expected technology price developments over time for a number of energy-related technologies, both on the supply side, the intermediate conversion chain and on the demand side. Among these, transmission technologies play an important role, both in smoothing out renewable energy supplies within the European Union region, and also allowing substantial import of energy from countries outside the EU having a surplus of renewable energy based power.