Development of fluctuating renewable energy sources and its influence on the future energy storage needs of selected European countries

The 20-20-20 targets of the European Union regarding renewable energies and climate are ambitious but realistic. Since the promotion of renewable energies first started, the share of sustainable energy on the net electricity consumption is rising steadily. Especially fluctuating, non-controllable sources like wind and sun are gaining importance. With an installed amount of non-controllable power that exceeds the yearly peak load, situations can occur with a surplus of energy in the electricity supply system. This surplus is strongly dependent on the share amongst the installed technologies, especially wind and sun. This paper deals with the calculation of short and long term energy storage needs and its dependence on the installed amount of solar energy and wind power. The target countries are Germany, Greece and Spain. In each country the electricity system was modeled and future development scenarios for renewable energies have been investigated. For all countries an equal development of wind and solar power, as defined in the targets of the National governments, is investigated as well as scenarios for a favored development of wind and solar energy respectively. Furthermore the market framework conditions in the target countries are discussed and possibilities to give incentives towards a more regulated support of energies from renewable sources are highlighted.