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Offshore wind power attracts intensive attention for decarbonizing power supply in Japan, because Japan has 1600 GW of offshore wind potential in contrast with 300 GW of onshore wind. Offshore wind availability in Japan, however, is significantly constrained by seacoast geography where very deep ocean is close to its coastal line, and eventually, nearly 80% of offshore wind resource is found in an ocean depth deeper than 50 m. Therefore, power system planning should consider both the location of available offshore wind resource and the constraint of power grid integration. This paper analyzes the impact of power grid integration of renewable resources including offshore wind power by considering the detailed location of offshore wind resource and the detailed topology of power grid. The study is performed by an optimal power generation mix model, highlighted by detailed spatial resolution derived from 383 nodes and 472 bulk power transmission lines with hourly temporal resolution through a year. The model identifies the optimal integration of power generation from variable renewables, including offshore wind, given those predetermined capacities. The results imply that, together with extensive solar PV integration, total 33 GW of offshore wind, composed of 20 GW of fixed foundation offshore wind and 13 GW of floating offshore wind could contribute to achieve 50% of renewable penetration in the power supply of Japan, and that scale of offshore wind integration provides a technically feasible picture of large-scale renewable integration in the Japanese power sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a regionally disaggregated global energy model treating energy and CO2 transportation in detail is used to examine a cost-effective pattern for their interregional transportation over the 21st century under the CO2 stabilization target of 550 ppm. Also, we assess future perspectives for the hydrogen economy in such a scenario. The results show that as major petroleum and gas supplies shift to unconventional resources along the second half of this century due to resource depletion, the Middle East loses its importance as a petroleum and gas exporter and the global patterns of their transportation change significantly. We then show that while hydrogen's competitiveness decreases due to the detailed treatment of energy and CO2 transportation, biomass- derived Fischer­Tropsch (FT) fuels become attractive because their production facilitates a wide diffusion of CO2-neutral energy carriers by considerably reducing the transportation cost. FT fuels are produced in regions rich in forest resources and then transported on a large scale by tanker. By contrast, hydrogen is produced mainly at the center of its consumption regions using domestic feedstock, and its interregional delivery, which is done only by pipeline, plays a marginal role due to its high transportation cost. It is confirmed that such a hydrogen supply structure offers energy security benefits. Finally, we show that the regional distribution of CO2 storage capacity is a major determinant of the pattern of hydrogen transportation around 2100, because all the CO2 generated from hydrogen production is required to be captured for sequestration in that period and because interregional CO2 transportation is hardly chosen for economic reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to evaluate the various technological options for the future development of China's electric power sector taking into consideration its environmental impact. A baseline case, four sulfur control cases, and two carbon control cases were simulated in the least-cost optimization energy model. The calculated results show that with no environmental constraints coal-fired power plants would remain China's least-cost option to satisfy its rapidly growing electricity demand in the future. Sulfur control alone in China's electric power sector would have a limited impact on the improvement of its overall generation efficiency and carbon emissions, and carbon control would bring not only significant sulfur and carbon emission mitigation but also an improvement in the overall generation efficiency and fuel switching from coal to natural gas. The low marginal costs of carbon mitigation in China's electric power sector show that future possible international cooperation with the sector on climate change issues such as the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol would be cost-effective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-021-00948-5 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]