Investigation of optimal transformation pathways towards 2050 for the successful implementation of a sustainable reduction of carbon emissions from power generation

Today's energy system is largely based on the use of fossil energy sources, while clean, decentralised power generation have been gaining in importance as they became competitive in the last decade. Through increased integration of renewable energies and flexibility options for spatial and temporal balancing global reductions of carbon emissions are realisable to address raising global temperatures due to greenhouse gasses. The objectives of this thesis are to develop a computer optimisation toolbox for a flexible model parametrisation, which allows studying the long-term behaviour and development pathways of the power system, and to calculate different scenarios representing potential political frameworks or conditions. The tool that is developed, called GENESYS-2, will implement new algorithmic approaches in order to address the high complexity of the calculations required for the investigation of several decades with high temporal resolution of one hour. The model is parametrised for a European scenario with technical system component properties, cost and settings for political boundaries. Different sensitivities of the model are investigated to demonstrate how the concepts of the different available techno-economic parameters work and how they affect the properties of the model composition and resulting pathways. The investigation, furthermore, leads to the conclusion, that further integration of renewable sources is more economical than conventional generation, especially, if political decarbonisation targets need to be reached. The development of additional components like storage and grids to provide the necessary system flexibility, in the long run, need to become an essential part of investment efforts