Into a Cooler Future with Electricity Generated from Solar Photovoltaic
32 Pages Posted: 14 Dec 2021 Publication Status: Published
More...Abstract
The fast-growing global cooling demand due to income growth in tropical countries necessitates substantial investments in new generation capacity. Despite the synergy between the temporal behavior of the cooling demand and solar photovoltaic (PV) production, it is not clear whether the increased cooling demand will make solar PV more cost-effective or less so. We use a capacity expansion model to investigate the cost-effectiveness of investing in solar PV to meet the electricity demand linked to cooling for seven different regions under various CO2 emission targets. Solar PV plays a dominant role in meeting the additional electricity demand linked to cooling and the share of solar PV in the additional generation capacity ranges from 64% to 135%. Additionally, powering electric cooling with mainly solar PV can lower the average electricity system cost. These results suggest that solar PV may comprise the backbone of electricity supply for cooling in the future electricity system.
Keywords: electric cooling, solar PV, electricity system, decarbonization, Renewable Energy
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