The potential of electric vehicle flexibility to reduce resource demand in future net-zero European electricity systems

With the European Green Deal the EU aims for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Achieving this involves a shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. This transition places increasing pressure on the resources needed for renewable energy technologies, such as solar cells and wind turbines, and storage technologies, like batteries, used to facilitate high shares of variable renewable energy. Demand side measures present an opportunity to mitigate the resource demand by supporting the integration of renewables. In extension this could contribute to a more sustainable electricity system by alleviating environmental and social impacts of resource extraction.

The electrification of the transport sector presents an opportunity for one such demand side measure. With increasing deployment of electric vehicles, vast amounts of batteries are distributed throughout the energy system. While the main purpose of these batteries is to store and supply the energy needed for driving, there is usually more storage capacity available than what is utilised on a daily basis. This excess capacity could be used to support the integration of large shares of variable renewable energy. The flexibility from electric vehicles, known as vehicle-to-grid or bidirectional charging, has the potential to provide much of the expected future storage needs in the electricity system.

This work investigates the potential of electric vehicle flexibility to reduce the resource demand of European net-zero electricity systems in 2050. We apply the high spatial and temporal resolution electricity system model for Europe, highRES-Europe, optimising capacity expansion and operation for least cost. Three electric vehicle charging modes with increasing degree of flexibility are considered: immediate, flexible, and bidirectional. A post-analysis is performed to assess the resource demand of the system across electric vehicle flexibility scenarios. First results show that flexible and bidirectional charging can support the integration of large shares of variable renewable energy in future European electricity systems, reducing the need for stationary battery storage. This lessens the resource demand of the energy transition, especially related to batteries, contributing to a more sustainable system.