December 13, 2023 - The German traffic light coalition began its term two years ago with ambi- tious energy policy goals. Halfway through the legislative period, its track record is mixed. Good progress has been made in some areas, but in others a large gap between targets and the status quo...

Using electricity for heating can contribute to decarbonization and provide flexibility to integrate variable renewable energy. We analyze the case of electric storage heaters in German 2030 scenarios with an open-source electricity sector model. We find that flexible electric heaters generally...

We analyze the gross welfare gains from real-time retail pricing in electricity markets where carbon taxation induces investment in variable renewable technologies. Applying a stylized numerical electricity market model, we find a U-shaped association between carbon taxation and gross welfare...

In the transition to a renewable energy system, the occurrence of low-wind-power events receives increasing attention. We analyze the frequency and duration of such events for onshore wind power in Germany, based on 40 years of reanalysis data and open software. We find that low-wind-power...

DIETER is an open-source power sector model designed to analyze future settings with very high shares of variable renewable energy sources. It minimizes overall system costs, including fixed and variable costs of various generation, flexibility and sector coupling options. Here we introduce...

Increasing the use of heat pumps is an important measure for reducing carbon emissions in the heating sector as well as natural gas imports. This report uses an electricity sector model to investigate the effects of an accelerated expansion of the heat pump stock on the German electricity sector...

Die verstärkte Nutzung von Wärmepumpen ist eine wichtige Maßnahme zur Senkung der CO2-Emissionen im Wärmesektor. Zudem können Wärmepumpen dazu beitragen, die Importe von Erdgas zu reduzieren. Mit Hilfe eines Stromsektormodells werden die Auswirkungen eines beschleunigten Ausbaus von...

Die Ampelkoalition steht vor der Herausforderung, ihre energiepolitischen Ziele zu erreichen. Will sie dabei nicht scheitern, muss sie das Tempo der Energiewende deutlich steigern. Anlässlich der aktuellen energiepolitischen Debatte wurde am DIW Berlin der sogenannte Ampel-Monitor Energiewende...

The so-called traffic light coalition is facing a challenge: it has set ambitious energy policy targets, but can only achieve them if the pace of the energy transition is increased significantly. To contribute to the current energy policy debate, the Ampel-Monitor Energiewende (Monitor of the...

Green hydrogen can help to decarbonize parts of the transportation sector, but its power sector interactions are not well understood so far. It may contribute to integrating variable renewable energy sources if production is sufficiently flexible in time. Using an open-source co-optimization...