Research Seminar

CO2-Effects of Power Demand from E-Mobility — Sonja Peterson

30 Mar 2021

Speaker

Sonja Peterson (Kiel Institute)

Abstract

The transport sector is so far lacking behind in terms of emission reductions. In order to decarbonize this sector, high hopes are placed on electromobility. This hope is based on the assumption that in the medium term, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) produced and charged exclusively by renewable electricity will provide CO2-neutral mobility. There are an increasing number of studies on the CO2 savings from electric mobility. These are based on different assumptions regarding CO2 emissions in the production of the vehicles, the consumption of BEVs and internal combustion engines, and the CO2 intensity of the electricity mix. Accordingly, these studies arrive at very different results.

The decisive factor for emissions from electric vehicles is the emission intensity of the electricity mix assumed for battery production and refueling of electric vehicles. Typically, ad-hoc assumptions are made, while the correct approach would be to calculate the additional emissions that would result from increased electricity demand, accounting for the conditions in the electricity market.

Regardless of the question of actual physical savings from electromobility, however, there is a shift of emissions from the transport sector to the electricity sector. This sector is part of the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), so that possible additional physical emissions from electromobility may be offset by savings in other areas of the EU ETS.

We investigate the impact of the expansion of electromobility in the EU ETS in two steps. Step 1 is a calculation of the possible (physical) emissions of the additional electricity demand by electric vehicles based on the additional charging electricity. Step 2 is – based on these scenarios - a calculation of the factual emissions determined by the feedbacks in the EU ETS accounting also for the newly established Market Stability Reserve.

Authors

David Bothe (Frontier Economics) — Christoph Gatzen (Frontier Economics) — Lennard Kröger (Kiel Institute) — Patrick Peichert (Frontier Economics) — Sonja Peterson (Kiel Institute) — Wilfried Rickels (Kiel Institute) — Ulrich Schmidt (Kiel Institute)

Room

Virtuall via Gotomeeting
If interested, please send an Email to frank.bickenbach@ifw-kiel.de to receive a Gotomeeting-Link to the seminar.