Challenges of the integration of renewable energies in the Mediterranean region

The mitigation of climate change is a topic of highest priority, especially in the European Union (EU). Therefore, every sector including the energy sector has to play its role in order to achieve mthe goals the EU has set itself for 2020, 2030 and 2050. This paper deals with the challenges of the integration of renewable energies in the Mediterranean region with a focus on Southeast Europe and North Africa. Compared to other European countries, there is still a large unused potential of hydropower in Southeast Europe. Also, the solar/PV potential is higher compared to countries like Germany, where the expansion of PV was very high in the last 10 years. In North Africa the solar/PV potential is considerable higher compared to Europe. Therefore, a collaboration between countries in North Africa and Europe would make sense on the one hand in order to use this potential also for the European continent with a high energy demand and lower potentials and on the other hand regarding the development of the economies and energy infrastructures in the North African countries, which could result in a win-win-situation. In order to investigate the problems and difficulties of implementing more RES into the system, the Sustainable Transition scenario of the TYNDP2018 of the ENTSO-E has been implemented for the European countries into the techno-economic simulation model ATLANTIS. For the future electricity grid development, the transmission projects of the TYNDP2018 have also been implemented into ATLANTIS. Furthermore, the model has been expanded with the integration of the North African countries of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Using the simulation model ATLANTIS it is now possible to investigate, how the integration of more RES in the Mediterranean region can be achieved and which challenges occur. The simulation shows, that especially Italy could take benefit from cheaper electricity production in Southeast Europe with the completion of the Transbalkan Corridor and the related HVDC-connection from Montenegro to Italy, but also from the RES production in Tunisia with future HVDC lines from Tunisia to Sicily and Rome.