{"id":52077,"date":"2023-12-01T17:46:16","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T16:46:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/publication\/what-will-make-energy-systems-sustainable\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T17:44:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:44:59","slug":"what-will-make-energy-systems-sustainable","status":"publish","type":"publication","link":"https:\/\/www.wifo.ac.at\/en\/publication\/52077\/","title":{"rendered":"What Will Make Energy Systems Sustainable?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-52077","publication","type-publication","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"subtitle":"","text":"One of the lessons learned from the German effort under the heading of Energiewende is the insight that simply shifting to renewables and recommending improving energy efficiency is not sufficient to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Combined with the expected radical change of technologies this requires a more profound understanding of our energy systems. Therefore, in contrast to most conventional approaches we propose a deepened structural analysis that covers the full energy value chain from the required functionalities for mechanical, thermal and specific electric energy services via application and transformation technologies up to primary energy. This deepened structural approach opens and substantially enhances our understanding of policy designs that are compatible with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. We discover the essential role of four energy grids, namely for electricity, heat, gas, and information as the key for integrating all components of a newly structured energy system. Consequently, we conclude that policy strategies focusing on individual components of an energy system as simply shifting to renewables may from a comprehensive perspective on sustainability in the worst case even turn out as counterproductive.","onlinedate":"2018-06-14 12:00:00","lang":"English","publication_series":"","publication_date":"20180601","publication_date_year":"","publication_date_full":false,"publication_num_pages":"16","keywords":"[\"Energy grids\",\"Energy value chain\",\"Sustainable energy systems\"]","jelcodes":"[\"Q01\",\"Q40\",\"Q55\"]","related_publications":"[]","pdf":428393,"zip":null,"link":"","monthly_report":true,"monthly_report_main":false,"monthly_report_volume":"","monthly_report_pages":"","monthly_report_pages_sort":"0","issue":"566","journal":"WIFO Working Papers","publisher":"","invisible":false,"external":false,"embargo_date":"2018-06-14 12:00:00","types":[44410],"research_groups":[3655],"collaboration":"","persons":[3671,4953],"persons_data":"[{\"personId\":3671,\"personName\":\"Angela K\u00f6ppl\",\"organisationNames\":[]},{\"personId\":4953,\"personName\":\"Stefan Schleicher\",\"organisationNames\":[]}]","clients":[],"subclients":[],"partners":[],"topics":[],"host_publication_title":"","host_publication_subtitle":"","place_of_publication":"","host_publication_editors":"[]","type_description":"","output_media":"","chapter":"","article_number":"","citations":"{\"apa\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_apa rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_apa rendering_contributiontoperiodical_apa\\\"><span>K\u00f6ppl, A.<\\\/span><span>, &amp; Schleicher, S.<\\\/span> (2018). <span>What Will Make Energy Systems Sustainable?<\\\/span> <span><em>WIFO Working Papers<\\\/em><\\\/span>, (566). <a onclick=\\\"window.open(this.href, '_blank','noopener,noreferrer'); return false;\\\" href=\\\"https:\\\/\\\/www.wifo.ac.at\\\/wwa\\\/pubid\\\/61115\\\" class=\\\"link\\\"><span>https:\\\/\\\/www.wifo.ac.at\\\/wwa\\\/pubid\\\/61115<\\\/span><\\\/a><\\\/div>\",\"vancouver\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_vancouver rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_vancouver rendering_contributiontoperiodical_vancouver\\\"><span>K\u00f6ppl A<\\\/span><span>, Schleicher S<\\\/span>. <span class=\\\"title\\\"><span>What Will Make Energy Systems Sustainable?<\\\/span><\\\/span> <span>WIFO Working Papers<\\\/span>. 2018 Jun;(566).<\\\/div>\",\"bibtex\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_bibtex rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_bibtex rendering_contributiontoperiodical_bibtex\\\"><div>@misc{0435a71c81a7417a8257e56dd22d9b08,<\\\/div><div>  title    = \\\"What Will Make Energy Systems Sustainable?\\\",<\\\/div><div>  abstract = \\\"One of the lessons learned from the German effort under the heading of Energiewende is the insight that simply shifting to renewables and recommending improving energy efficiency is not sufficient to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Combined with the expected radical change of technologies this requires a more profound understanding of our energy systems. Therefore, in contrast to most conventional approaches we propose a deepened structural analysis that covers the full energy value chain from the required functionalities for mechanical, thermal and specific electric energy services via application and transformation technologies up to primary energy. This deepened structural approach opens and substantially enhances our understanding of policy designs that are compatible with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. We discover the essential role of four energy grids, namely for electricity, heat, gas, and information as the key for integrating all components of a newly structured energy system. Consequently, we conclude that policy strategies focusing on individual components of an energy system as simply shifting to renewables may from a comprehensive perspective on sustainability in the worst case even turn out as counterproductive.\\\",<\\\/div><div>  keywords = \\\"Energy grids, Energy value chain, Sustainable energy systems, Energy grids, Energy value chain, Sustainable energy systems\\\",<\\\/div><div>  author   = \\\"Angela K{\\\\\\\"o}ppl and Stefan Schleicher\\\",<\\\/div><div>  note     = \\\"Sustainable Energy Systems\\\",<\\\/div><div>  year     = \\\"2018\\\",<\\\/div><div>  month    = jun,<\\\/div><div>  language = \\\"English\\\",<\\\/div><div>  journal  = \\\"WIFO Working Papers\\\",<\\\/div><p>}<\\\/p><\\\/div>\",\"ris\":\"<div class=\\\"rendering rendering_researchoutput  rendering_researchoutput_ris rendering_contributiontoperiodical rendering_ris rendering_contributiontoperiodical_ris\\\"><p>TY  - GEN<\\\/p><p>T1  - What Will Make Energy Systems Sustainable?<\\\/p><p>AU  - K\u00f6ppl, Angela<\\\/p><p>AU  - Schleicher, Stefan<\\\/p><p>N1  - Sustainable Energy Systems<\\\/p><p>PY  - 2018\\\/6<\\\/p><p>Y1  - 2018\\\/6<\\\/p><p>N2  - One of the lessons learned from the German effort under the heading of Energiewende is the insight that simply shifting to renewables and recommending improving energy efficiency is not sufficient to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Combined with the expected radical change of technologies this requires a more profound understanding of our energy systems. Therefore, in contrast to most conventional approaches we propose a deepened structural analysis that covers the full energy value chain from the required functionalities for mechanical, thermal and specific electric energy services via application and transformation technologies up to primary energy. This deepened structural approach opens and substantially enhances our understanding of policy designs that are compatible with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. We discover the essential role of four energy grids, namely for electricity, heat, gas, and information as the key for integrating all components of a newly structured energy system. Consequently, we conclude that policy strategies focusing on individual components of an energy system as simply shifting to renewables may from a comprehensive perspective on sustainability in the worst case even turn out as counterproductive.<\\\/p><p>AB  - One of the lessons learned from the German effort under the heading of Energiewende is the insight that simply shifting to renewables and recommending improving energy efficiency is not sufficient to lower greenhouse gas emissions. Combined with the expected radical change of technologies this requires a more profound understanding of our energy systems. Therefore, in contrast to most conventional approaches we propose a deepened structural analysis that covers the full energy value chain from the required functionalities for mechanical, thermal and specific electric energy services via application and transformation technologies up to primary energy. This deepened structural approach opens and substantially enhances our understanding of policy designs that are compatible with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. We discover the essential role of four energy grids, namely for electricity, heat, gas, and information as the key for integrating all components of a newly structured energy system. 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