How to Establish Local Renewable Energy Scenarios in the Context of National Energy Systems

In the transition to 100% renewable energy systems, the local and regional implementation of renewable energy becomes essential. To implement energy systems that fulfill national targets, local investments have to be made creating a need for local energy planning. However, challenges emerge when local energy plans must be related to each other and to national targets. For instance, in terms of the division of resources between the countryside and cities, the amount of biomass to be used, and the placement of wind turbines. If local plans do not include the context of surrounding energy systems and only optimise locally, the consequences might be national sub-optimisation, including excessive biomass use, wind turbines in non-favourable positions, and the misalignment of resources between the open land and the cities. Thus, there is a risk that these necessary local plans can lead to an unnecessary national development. This paper presents methodologies and tools that can assist the design of local energy strategies to include the interaction with national energy systems. The paper applies these methodologies and tools to the case of a local energy strategy in Denmark and shows the results of establishing local energy scenarios in the context of a national system.