Forecasting the production of photovoltaic (PV) and wind power systems inevitably implies inaccuracies. Therefore, sales made based on forecasts almost always require the vendor to make balancing efforts. In the absence of resources available within their own portfolios, operators can turn...

This paper explores the economic benefits that wind and photovoltaic power plant operators can extract from the activation of flexible loads during their market operations. We compare two alternatives: (1) use of flexible loads to maximize relative day-ahead market value by shifting the...

This paper reports on the Austrian research project “Renewable energy in Austria: Modeling possible development trends until 2020”. The project investigated possible economic and ecological effects of a substantially increased use of renewable energy sources in Austria. Together with...

This paper investigates whether coal- or biomass-fired Integrated Gasification Combined-Cycle (IGCC) power plants can serve as an economically viable future technology for providing clean electricity and heat in Germany. In the context of CO2 emission reduction in power generation, energy...

Space heating accounts for a large fraction of the primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions of residential buildings. Besides targeting the insulation standard, residential heating systems (RHS) offer the potential to reduce energy demand for space heating. Therefore, understanding the...

Participatory multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) is increasingly used for the integrated assessment of future scenarios. Determining weights of the different criteria constitutes one of the biggest challenges of MCE. This paper investigates the influence of weights on the ranking of scenarios and...

In this paper we compare development trends, economics and financial risks of alternative large-scale solar power generation technologies (parabolic trough, solar tower, and three different photovoltaic technologies). In particular, a number of European countries, Algeria and the US promote...

In this paper we investigate the location-specific attractiveness of small wind turbines (SWT) for private households. In order to assess the economic viability of an investment in SWT, we analyze a set of scenarios that incorporate different types of SWT, various storage system options, support...

For more than 20 years now, wind power has been one of the main renewable energy sources, especially in countries like Denmark, one of the pioneer countries in developing onshore wind turbines. Whereas offshore wind utilization still has a high risk profile the repowering of wind converter...

In this paper we investigate the value of capture-readiness by modeling the cost effectiveness of various alternative technological options and focusing on different clean-coal technology pathways. The modeling framework developed is based on stochastic net present value calculations. It allows...