Europe has enough solar and wind resources to meet its electricity demand entirely from renewable sources. A new study by researchers at the Institute for Transformative Sustainability Research (IASS) in Potsdam shows that many regions and municipalities could meet their electricity demand using electricity systems based exclusively on renewables. However, their development would exacerbate land use pressure around metropolitan areas and larger conurbations.
The findings of the study are presented online on an interactive map covering Europe’s regions and cities. (https://timtroendle.github.io/possibility-for-electricity-autarky-map/): Users can simply zoom into a region or village – from Landau in Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate region to Berlin, and from Menton on the French Riviera to the Italian capital of Rome – the map identifies the potential for electricity generation from renewables across Europe and reveals whether regions could meet their electricity demand from renewable sources.
“Our results show how difficult it is, especially in the case of densely populated cities such as Berlin, to meet electricity demand from renewable energy sources,” explains lead author Tim Tröndle – “but the technology is now sufficiently advanced that even this would be feasible if metropolitan areas were to join forces with their surrounding regions. Rural regions and urban areas with extensive rural hinterlands could meet their electricity demand entirely from renewable sources: at the local level, 75 percent of municipalities can access sufficient solar and wind resources to meet their annual electricity demand.
Read more at Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies E.V. (IASS)
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