Spatial strategies for siting variable renewable energy sources to ensure weather resilience in Switzerland

Article Article scientifique Article Spatial strategies for siting variable renewable energy sources to ensure weather resilience in Switzerland eng 2025-04-21 2025-08 author Rubino Giacomo 0009-0006-5087-2183 405166 Forel Communs (FOREL) author Killenberger Collin Michaël 431879 Forel Communs (FOREL) author Sasse Jan-Philipp 0000-0001-6621-1220 904762 author Wang Zongfei 0000-0001-7076-5242 989366 author Wen Xin 0000-0001-6479-0126 949217 Forel Communs (FOREL) author Zielonka Nik 0000-0003-3735-0269 983903 Forel Communs (FOREL) author Trutnevyte Evelina 0000-0002-1716-6192 892077 Forel Communs (FOREL) 123237 10.1016/j.renene.2025.123237 0960-1481 https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960148125008997 Weather resilience of the electricity system with high shares of Variable Renewable Energy Sources (VRES) could potentially be increased by spatially siting these sources in a way that dims the impact of weather. Here, we use single-year high-resolution modeling to test the resilience of the Swiss electricity system in 2035 under four siting strategies for new solar PV, wind power plants, and heat pumps: expected siting (continuation of the current spatial trends), even siting that is proportional to the technical potential or population, and the minimum system cost approach from the system's perspective. Using weather data from 1995 to 2019, we calculate nine electricity system resilience indicators for each siting strategy, accounting for diversification, decentralization, import dependency, load shedding, and curtailment. We find that a Swiss system in 2035 running fully or almost fully on VRES is resilient to historical weather variations. The four siting strategies perform relatively similarly in terms of resilience, indicating that VRES locations are neither a major concern nor a promising solution to influence weather resilience in a small country, like Switzerland. Having said that, minimum system cost approach that sites technologies in a cost-optimal way from the system's perspective has consistent, albeit minor, advantages for resilience, especially for minimizing load shedding and curtailment. Variable renewable energy sources Resilience Spatial modeling Siting renewable generation Weather variability Dewey 550 Dewey 333.7-333.9 Industrial Services of Geneva Swiss Federal Office of Energy SWEET SURE 41 Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau 153 18 Institut des sciences de l'environnement 0DB false 938 ISE Pôle Sciences 1245 FORE10 Renewable Energy Systems 945 ISE Energie Renewable energy 249 687db326-8bed-4746-bf79-9fe7b3b6982f Article (Published version) Public 1-s2.0-S0960148125008997-main-2.pdf 7316592 application/pdf CC BY-4.0 4db681d1834c39cef1f541a3630d6e05e511e187f17687020667c27254eb66e9 openAccess Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement

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Spatial strategies for siting variable renewable energy sources to ensure weather resilience in Switzerland	Renewable energy	2025	74	334

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Rubino, Giacomo

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