Soft-Coupling Energy and Power System Models to Analyze Pathways Toward a De-fossilized German Transport Sector

Book chapter, 2023

The transport sector is a major consumer of energy worldwide. Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet to de-fossilize the transport sector due to its intricacy; therefore, many concepts and technologies should be combined to have a noteworthy impact on this hard-to-abate sector. As such, the required diverse set of expertise for making correct decisions cannot be achieved by merely utilizing one model. In this study, we connect multiple datasets and models that employ various methodologies with different purposes to exhibit a pathway to a green transport sector. The extended bioenergy optimization (BENOPTex) and renewable energy mix (REMix) models are coupled iteratively to produce coherent results while considering different sets of constraints. The combined effects of bioenergy and synthetic fuel—using renewable electricity—on the German transport sector are investigated via a scenario. Two demand models are also used to capture the specificities of the energy demands of the mainly behavior-driven road transportation as well as technology-driven aviation sector. The outcome of the resulted soft-coupled model respects biomass availability, regulatory circumstances, techno-economic properties, and power sector expansion for the production of synthetic fuels.