The usage of renewable energy sources (RESs) to achieve greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goals requires a holistic transformation across all sectors. Due to the fluctuating nature of RESs, it is necessary to install more wind and photovoltaics (PVs) generation in terms of nominal power than would otherwise be required in order to ensure that the power demand can always be met. In a near fully RES-based energy system, there will be times when there is an inadequate conventional load to meet the overcapacity of RESs, which will lead to demand regularly being exceeded and thereby a surplus. One approach to making productive use of this surplus, which would lead to a holistic transformation of all sectors, is “sector coupling” (SC). This paper describes the general principles behind this concept and develops a working definition intended to be of utility to the international scientific community. Furthermore, a literature review provides an overview of relevant scientific papers on the topic. Due to the challenge of distinguishing between papers with or without SC, the approach adopted here takes the German context as a case study that can be applied to future reviews with an international focus. Finally, to evaluate the potential of SC, an analysis of the linking of the power and transport sectors on a worldwide, EU and German level has been conducted and is outlined here.

“Linking the power and transport sectors—Part 1” describes the general principle of “sector coupling” (SC), develops a working definition intended of the concept to be of utility to the international scientific community, contains a literature review that provides an overview of relevant scientific papers on this topic and conducts a rudimentary analysis of the linking of the power and transport sectors on a worldwide, EU and German level. The aim of this follow-on paper is to outline an approach to the modelling of SC. Therefore, a study of Germany as a case study was conducted. This study assumes a high share of renewable energy sources (RES) contributing to the grid and significant proportion of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in the year 2050, along with a dedicated hydrogen pipeline grid to meet hydrogen demand. To construct a model of this nature, the model environment “METIS” (models for energy transformation and integration systems) we developed will be described in more detail in this paper. Within this framework, a detailed model of the power and transport sector in Germany will be presented in this paper and the rationale behind its assumptions described. Furthermore, an intensive result analysis for the power surplus, utilization of electrolysis, hydrogen pipeline and economic considerations has been conducted to show the potential outcomes of modelling SC. It is hoped that this will serve as a basis for researchers to apply this framework in future to models and analysis with an international focus.

The amount and distribution of land which is eligible for renewable energy sources (RES) is fundamental to the role these technologies will play in future energy systems. Unfortunately, land eligibility (LE) investigations in the literature are plagued by many inconsistencies between studies, impeding the work of researchers and policy makers interested in energy system development planning. As one factor contributing to this, the criteria used to construct land exclusion constraints have not been the focus of scientific investigation on a large scale, and as such their interactions are not well known.Therefore, an open source LE framework was used to perform evaluations in the European context of 36 commonly used constraints. After direct visualization, three measures by which these constraints are valuable to an LE analysis were computed: independence, exclusivity, and overlap. Results show extensive spatial sensitivity to constrain influence. Furthermore, some constraints, such as proximity to agriculture and woodland areas, rank high in all three measures; others, such as distance from airports and camping sites, consistently rank low; and still others, such as elevation, score highly in one measure but not the others. With these results, LE researchers can better understand the contributions of the constraints used in their analyses.

Due to the increasing global importance of decarbonizing human activities, especially the production of electricity, the optimal deployment of renewable energy technologies will play a crucial role in future energy systems. To accomplish this, particular attention must be accorded to the geospatial and temporal distribution of variable renewable energy sources (VRES), such as wind and solar radiation, in order to match electricity supply and demand. This study presents a techno-economical assessment of four energy technologies in the hypothetical context of Mexico in 2050, namely: onshore and offshore wind turbines and open-field and rooftop photovoltaics. A land eligibility analysis incorporating physical, environmental, and sociopolitical eligibility constraints and individual turbine and photovoltaic park simulations, drawing on 39 years of climate data, is performed for individual sites across the country in an effort to determine the installable potential and the associated levelized costs of electricity. The results reveal that up to 54 PWh of renewable electricity can be produced at a levelized cost of electricity of less than 70 EUR·MWh⁻¹. Around 91% (49 PWh) of this electricity would originate from 23 TW of open-field photovoltaic parks that could occupy up to 578,000 km² of eligible land across the country. The remaining 9% (4.8 PWh) could be produced by 1.9 TW of onshore wind installations allocated to approximately 68,500 km² of eligible land that is almost fully adjacent to three mountainous zones. The combination of rooftop photovoltaic and offshore wind turbines accounts for a very small share of less than 0.03% of the overall techno-economical potential.

Scientists and engineers involved in the design of complex system solutions use computational workflows for their evaluations. Along with growing system complexity, the complexity of these workflows also increases. Without integration tools, scientists and engineers are often highly concerned with how to integrate software tools and model sets, which hinders their original research or engineering aims. Therefore, a new framework for streamlining the creation and usage of automated computational workflows is introduced in the present article. It uses state-of-the-art technologies for automation (e.g., container-automation) and coordination (e.g., distributed message oriented middleware), and a microservice-based architecture for novel distributed process execution and coordination. It also supports co-simulations as part of larger workflows including additional auxiliary computational tasks, e.g., forecasting or data transformation. Using Apache NiFi, an easy-to-use web interface is provided to create, run and control workflows without the need to be concerned with the underlying computing infrastructure. Initial framework testing via the implementation of a real-world workflow underpins promising performance in the realms of parallelizability, low overheads and reliable coordination.