We move forward towards supporting climate neutrality in accordance with the European Green Deal!  

In this past month of October, openENTRANCE, in collaboration with other partners of the H2020 Energy Modelling Group, hosted the fourth conference of the Energy Modelling Platform for Europe (EMP-E). The conference provides a platform where diverse actors in energy system analyses come together to share the most relevant issues of energy policy and energy modelling. The aim is to widen the insight of energy modellers, reach policymakers, and promote the commitment of diverse stakeholders with the sustainable energy transition process of the EU.  

This event takes place every year, and the main topic of 2020 was “Modelling Climate Neutrality for the European Green Deal”. We had a full digital based conference this year, and it was assembled by four Plenaries and eight Focus Groups which covered diverse discussion topics, including relevant issues such as the impacts of COVID-19 on the energy system. All the presentations and key session messages can be accessed through the official website of the EMP-E 2020.

What do the model results imply for policy making? What concrete model insights might be relevant to support the realization of the EU Green Deal? The EMP-E centred on these questions and attempted to bring some light upon them with the help of different panellists and experts. These orators referred to the integration of concepts such as circular economy in a variety of models related to climate, weather, and energy. Also, there were considered the social and economic impacts of possible energy transition pathways. Moreover, EMP-E 2020 covered specific issues and sectors of the energy system, for example there was a focus group on the role of digitalization and smart cities and their contribution to the evolution of energy systems. 

While these are only some of the topics reviewed by a total of 13 sessions, the exchange of ideas during EMP-E 2020 contributed to understand potential applications of the wide range of models and into strengthening ties with policymakers at all levels. This cooperation is essential to reach an efficient local, national, and regional policy implementation related to the European energy system. EMP-E 2020 is also important to jointly discuss with EC representatives what the research needs are and the key challenges on implementing climate-energy policy.

One of the potential applications by this integrated tool is the example of the model MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM. The datasets on current global tendencies encapsulated into the model MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM have a main role when modelling and generating quantitative scenarios and evaluating case studies that have added value to the research community of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the scientific community.  

Both, the input datasets and result datasets are the final product delivered to the open platform to be available for future projects, and built-on results. Some examples of the most common input datasets in energy system modelling such as MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM are:   

• Fossil fuel prices  
• CO2 prices/budgets  
• Technology cost/learning rates  
• Renewable resource potentials  
• Energy demand projections  

The MESSAGEix-GLOBIOM model is able to optimize an energy system to compensate energy demand with the lowest cost. This can be linked to a module that estimate a macro-economic demand response designated by the configuration of the energy system. This results in the disposition of data related to the demand, price, and emission development based on a global perspective. This has been particularly useful, for example when estimating the CO2 budget for Europe and complying with the goals of the Green Deal of limiting rising global temperatures to 1.5 oC. 

The relation of the CO2 budget with the global temperature increase allows also to link the models of openENTRANCE with the scenarios, transition pathways and storylines. The storylines with high exposure, on the corners of the cube, refer to the target of 1.5 oC, meanwhile the storyline with low exposure, in the centre of the cube, refer to the target of 2.0 oC, as follows:  

The database platform is being used by openENTRANCE as a “scenario explorer”, which is a tool that provides data from different models and allows it to be applied in the evaluation of case studies. One of the main advantages of the scenario explorer is that it possesses a continuous expansion. The more data being shared by different sources, the more accurate and complete data can be accessed by all users.
OpenEntrance is using this tool in 9 different case studies that cover the main topics of the energy transition:

The scenario projections can be updated and improved with the most relevant data obtained from different modellers, projects, and sources. These improvements would allow that the future scenario projections result more precise, narrowing the decision-making process meant to be adopted by diverse stakeholders. In this sense, the range of action would be more precise, allowing faster and more efficient results from the decisions taken at present times. It also helps evaluate in a more accurate manner the future impact of strategies considered now.