Costs of regional equity and autarky in a renewable European power system

Social acceptance is a multifaceted consideration when planning future energy systems, yet often challenging to address endogeneously. One key aspect regards the spatial distribution of investments. Here, I evaluate cost impact and changes in optimal system composition development infrastructure more evenly shared among countries regions fully renewable European power system. deliberately deviate from resource-induced optimum towards equitable self-sufficient solutions terms generation. The analysis employs open optimisation model PyPSA-Eur. show that lead very inhomogenous distributions assets, but uniform expansion plans can be achieved on national level at little additional expense below 4%. Yet completely autarkic solutions, without transmission, appear much costly.