Periodic Reporting for period 3 - Open ENTRANCE (Open ENergy TRansition ANalyses for a low-carbon Economy)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-11-01 bis 2023-06-30
The energy system in Europe will follow a transition to a low-carbon future in accordance with the European Union targets for the period leading up to 2050. Energy models that are currently used to plan, support, and verify the energy policies at the national and European levels do not fully take into account all new challenges posed by this transition. Civil society needs improved access to the assumptions, tools and results used to assess policy options in order to better understand the consequences of the different options. Researchers are also eager for more collaborative research and use of open data sources. A better transparency of modelling tools and a wider availability of data used and generated by modelling exercises would improve understanding of the challenges ahead. In addition, Europe needs to continuously promote networks and platforms for dialogue about energy modelling between relevant actors and institutions in order to enhance the scientific knowledge in the field and to reinforce the interaction between researchers and policy makers.
The H2020 project Open ENTRANCE (Open ENergy TRansition Analyses for a low-Carbon Economy), aimed to fulfil that need. It addressed the development, use and dissemination of a modelling platform for assessing low-carbon energy transition pathways that cut across the boundaries of established fields of knowledge. The platform is open, transparent, and integrated. It is populated with a suite of modelling tools and data selected to cover the multiple dimensions of the energy transition. This will facilitate and improve the dialogue between researchers, policy makers and the industry when investigating key questions linked to the energy transition:
1) What are the possible pathways towards a low-carbon emissions energy system?
2) What key environmental, social, technical and economic factors may affect the energy system transition and how should they be addressed holistically?
3) What will be the main consequences of such pathways in terms of energy mix, environmental and economic impacts?
Open ENTRANCE aimed to establish communication and interaction among very different models that were standalone and unconnected. Making existing tools available and linked as part of a shared platform significantly improves and accelerates the knowledge exchange between researchers and stakeholders and empowers them to run consistent analyses for the energy system transition. Through the online platform, researchers and stakeholders are able to share tools, scenarios, datasets and results.
The 4-year project included 13 energy modelling groups in Europe. Their participation in developing and using the Open Platform was a starting point for further use beyond the project. The Open Platform will be accessible for downloading models and data for at least 10 years after the end of the project. The project facilitated a close and continuous dialogue with policy and decision makers in Europe.
The H2020 project Open ENTRANCE (Open ENergy TRansition Analyses for a low-Carbon Economy), aimed to fulfil that need. It addressed the development, use and dissemination of a modelling platform for assessing low-carbon energy transition pathways that cut across the boundaries of established fields of knowledge. The platform is open, transparent, and integrated. It is populated with a suite of modelling tools and data selected to cover the multiple dimensions of the energy transition. This will facilitate and improve the dialogue between researchers, policy makers and the industry when investigating key questions linked to the energy transition:
1) What are the possible pathways towards a low-carbon emissions energy system?
2) What key environmental, social, technical and economic factors may affect the energy system transition and how should they be addressed holistically?
3) What will be the main consequences of such pathways in terms of energy mix, environmental and economic impacts?
Open ENTRANCE aimed to establish communication and interaction among very different models that were standalone and unconnected. Making existing tools available and linked as part of a shared platform significantly improves and accelerates the knowledge exchange between researchers and stakeholders and empowers them to run consistent analyses for the energy system transition. Through the online platform, researchers and stakeholders are able to share tools, scenarios, datasets and results.
The 4-year project included 13 energy modelling groups in Europe. Their participation in developing and using the Open Platform was a starting point for further use beyond the project. The Open Platform will be accessible for downloading models and data for at least 10 years after the end of the project. The project facilitated a close and continuous dialogue with policy and decision makers in Europe.
Open ENTRANCE developed an Open energy system Modelling Platform for analyses of the transition to a low emission future in Europe (https://openenergymodels.net/). The Platform includes among other things:
* 4 consistent scenarios for low-carbon energy futures at the pan-European and country levels. Three of these scenarios are complying with a maximum of 1.5°C in global temperature increase, while the last one is complying with a maximum of 2.0°C increase. These quantitative scenarios (see image) have been created using a tailor-made adaptation and extension of the open energy system model GENeSYS-MOD. The scenarios were validated against the "most alike" pathways of the IAM MESSAGix-GLOBIOM model, which is used in the scope of IPCC.
* Open consistent data sets for macro-economic studies of the 4 scenarios. The macro-economic studies are conducted by the open models REMES and EXIOMOD.
* Open data sets for 8 case studies related to among other demand response, community of actors, flexibility provided by hydrogen, electric vehicles, transmission grids, heat storage and hydropower.
* A suite of models that is being made open, thus enabling reuse and further development by a wide research community. The suite includes models of different types: energy-system models, power system models, macroeconomic models, investment models and models for optimisation of local energy use and production.
* A Scenario Explorer (an open database) for sharing data among models and providing access to data sets. The database includes large data sets which are relevant for analyses of the transition to a low-carbon energy system in Europe.
* Linkage of most of the models in such a way that they can share data, and that output data from one model can become input data to another model. Thanks to this linkage, several analyses can be done in a consistent way.
* A data format and a nomenclature for linking models (https://github.com/openENTRANCE/openentrance).
At the end of the project, the results are used further in at least 19 new projects, e.g. the Horizon Europe project OpenMod4Africa (www.openmod4africa.eu) and Nordic Energy Outlook (www.sintef.no/en/projects/2021/nordic-energy-outlooks/). These include several results from Open ENTRANCE, e.g. the open models, the open datasets and the data format, and the nomenclature for linkages of models. The open character of the results makes it likely that they will be exploited in many new activities in the next years. The partners plan to use the results in new research activities and in master's and PhD studies. However, the open models and corresponding data sets can be used by any skilled user who wants to explore pathways for decarbonisation of a region, a country or the entire European Union.
The results are disseminated to a broad audience through the project's web page (openentrance.eu) through Twitter/X and LinkedIn accounts, and in newsletters. The results were also presented at the project's final conference, at a workshop in the European Parliament, at EMP 2020 and 2021 and ECEMP 2022, and at nine workshops facilitated by the project. Finally, there are 16 videos available from the project.
* 4 consistent scenarios for low-carbon energy futures at the pan-European and country levels. Three of these scenarios are complying with a maximum of 1.5°C in global temperature increase, while the last one is complying with a maximum of 2.0°C increase. These quantitative scenarios (see image) have been created using a tailor-made adaptation and extension of the open energy system model GENeSYS-MOD. The scenarios were validated against the "most alike" pathways of the IAM MESSAGix-GLOBIOM model, which is used in the scope of IPCC.
* Open consistent data sets for macro-economic studies of the 4 scenarios. The macro-economic studies are conducted by the open models REMES and EXIOMOD.
* Open data sets for 8 case studies related to among other demand response, community of actors, flexibility provided by hydrogen, electric vehicles, transmission grids, heat storage and hydropower.
* A suite of models that is being made open, thus enabling reuse and further development by a wide research community. The suite includes models of different types: energy-system models, power system models, macroeconomic models, investment models and models for optimisation of local energy use and production.
* A Scenario Explorer (an open database) for sharing data among models and providing access to data sets. The database includes large data sets which are relevant for analyses of the transition to a low-carbon energy system in Europe.
* Linkage of most of the models in such a way that they can share data, and that output data from one model can become input data to another model. Thanks to this linkage, several analyses can be done in a consistent way.
* A data format and a nomenclature for linking models (https://github.com/openENTRANCE/openentrance).
At the end of the project, the results are used further in at least 19 new projects, e.g. the Horizon Europe project OpenMod4Africa (www.openmod4africa.eu) and Nordic Energy Outlook (www.sintef.no/en/projects/2021/nordic-energy-outlooks/). These include several results from Open ENTRANCE, e.g. the open models, the open datasets and the data format, and the nomenclature for linkages of models. The open character of the results makes it likely that they will be exploited in many new activities in the next years. The partners plan to use the results in new research activities and in master's and PhD studies. However, the open models and corresponding data sets can be used by any skilled user who wants to explore pathways for decarbonisation of a region, a country or the entire European Union.
The results are disseminated to a broad audience through the project's web page (openentrance.eu) through Twitter/X and LinkedIn accounts, and in newsletters. The results were also presented at the project's final conference, at a workshop in the European Parliament, at EMP 2020 and 2021 and ECEMP 2022, and at nine workshops facilitated by the project. Finally, there are 16 videos available from the project.
The Open ENTRANCE Open Platform – including both open and linked energy modelling tools and large data sets for analyses of low carbon scenarios in Europe – is a new powerful and easy-to-use tool offered to the research community and others, which may build on it with further research and development. This Platform, free to use, holds the potential to make further research more efficient. For example, the energy system model GENeSYS-MOD and the four complete data sets for every European country are fully open. Researchers can adjust or improve the scenarios according to developments in policies, technologies, etc. Access to the Open ENTRANCE tools and data sets will relieve other researchers from extensive workloads and improve the European knowledge about how the region can develop into a low-carbon society in the most cost-efficient way. The research in Open ENTRANCE is described in 34 scientific publications. The socio-economic impacts of both The Open Platform and the improved understanding of the decarbonisation alternatives are already great due to the 19 follow-up projects. The impacts will most likely increase in the coming years because new projects will be developed from the open results.