Helena Cabal

This paper presents an approach to the assessment of the Mexican energy system’s evolution under the climate and energy objectives set by the National Climate Change Strategy using an energy optimization model. Some strategic indicators have been chosen to analyze the performance of three integration elements: sustainability, efficiency, and energy security. Two scenarios have been defined in the medium and long-term: the business as usual scenario, with no energy or climate targets, and the National Climate Change Strategy scenario, where clean energy technologies and CO₂ emissions objectives are considered. The aim of this work is the analysis of some of those strategic indicators’ evolution using the EUROfusion Times Model. Results show that reaching the strategy targets leads to improvements in the integration elements in the medium and long term. Besides, meeting the CO₂ emission limits is achievable in terms of technologies and resources availability but at a high cost, while clean technologies targets are met with no extra costs even in the business as usual scenario.

Over the last decades, combating climate change has been an important concern for policy makers. As a result, many policies have been designed towards this direction. Being electricity generation the focus of climate change mitigation policies, important changes are expected in this sector over the next few years as a result of the implementation of such policies. However, electricity production also generates other impacts on the water, energy and land (WEL) nexus that must be further investigated. To shed some light to this issue, this paper presents and discusses the potential impacts on the water-energy-land nexus resulting from the decarbonisation of the Spanish electricity system impacts under two different long-term scenarios. Using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, a set of environmental impacts relevant for the nexus have been analysed for the current and future electricity generation technologies in Spain. Additionally, through the use of an optimization energy model—Times-Spain—the evolution of the electricity technologies in Spain until 2030, under two different scenarios and targets has been assessed. Taking into consideration such scenarios, the global warming, acidification, eutrophication, ecotoxicity, water consumption, resource depletion and land use impacts have been estimated. Results show that, over time, together with the decrease of greenhouse gas emission, acidification and eutrophication tend to decrease in both scenarios. On the contrary, ecotoxicity and resource use impacts tend to increase.

This work presents the EFDA Times model (ETM), developed within the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA). ETM is an optimization global energy model which aims at providing the optimum energy system composition in terms of social wealth and sustainability including fusion as an alternative technology in the long term. Two framework scenarios are defined: a Base case scenario with no limits to CO2 emissions, and a 450ppm scenario with a limit of 450ppm in CO2-eq concentrations set by 2100. Previous results showed that in the Base case scenario, with no measures for CO2 emission reductions, fusion does not enter the energy system. However, when CO2 emission restrictions are imposed, the global energy system composition changes completely. In a 450ppm scenario, coal technologies disappear in a few decades, being mainly replaced by nuclear fission technologies which experience a great increase when constrained only by Uranium resources exhaustion. Fission technologies are then replaced by the fusion power plants that start in 2070, with a significant contribution to the global electricity production by 2100. To conclude the work, a sensitivity analysis will be presented on some parameters that may affect the possible role of fusion in the future global energy system.