Volume 3: Innovative Solutions for Energy Transitions: Part II

Cost-Optimal Pathways to Decarbonize Urban Energy Systems With PV, Batteries, and Electric Vehicles: A Case Study for Kyoto, Japan Kobashi T, Yoshida T, Naito K, Pfenninger S, Yamagata Y

Abstract

To minimize the impacts of climate change, it is increasingly clear that global CO2 emissions should be eliminated by 2050 (IPCC, 2018) and that advanced cities for carbon neutrality should have net zero emissions by 2040. However, the precise pathways by which they can reach such ambitious goals, have not been identified. As the costs of photovoltaics (PV), batteries, and electric vehicles (EV2) likely keep falling, they will play key roles for deep decarbonization. Here, we conduct a technoeconomic analysis of a city-scale energy system with PV, batteries, and EVs for the city of Kyoto, Japan. We find that aggressive EV adoption could help PV penetration in the city with substantially lower costs than just deploying PV and batteries alone. CO2 emissions from vehicle and electricity usages from the city could be reduced by 70- 80% in 2030 if 60% of current cars are replaced by EVs, at the same time reducing the costs by 40-50%.

Keywords renewable energy resources, technoeconomic analysis, PV, EV, urban decarbonization