Smart design is more effective than smart grids

The need to reduce energy consumption and to increase generation from renewable energy resources is imminent. However, the grid reinforcements required in order to distribute electricity from sustainable resources are rather expensive. Therefore, we investigated several innovative options that maximize the integration of renewable resources in the existing electricity grid. Our results show that innovative configurations of solar and wind resources in the current grid allow almost six times more renewable energy resources, at half of the costs per reduced tonne CO2, than following the normal modus of operation and installing only photovoltaics. At the same time, demand side management of flexible electric loads results in only a small increase of renewable energy resources that can additionally be integrated in the current grid.