Closing the Loop: Integrating Material Needs of Energy Technologies into Energy System Models

Abstract: The transition to a climate-neutral energy system demands large-scale renewable generation expansion, which requires substantial amounts of bulk materials like steel, cement, and polymers. The production of these materials represents an additional energy demand for the system, creating an energy-material feedback loop. Current energy system models lack a complete representation of this feedback loop. Material requirements of energy system transformation have been studied in a retrospective approach, not allowing them as a consideration in system design. To address this gap, we integrate bulk material demand and production as endogenous factors into energy system optimization using PyPSA-Eur. Our approach links infrastructure expansion with industrial energy needs to achieve a minimum-cost equilibrium. Applying this model to Germany's transition to climate neutrality by 2045, we find that accounting for material needs increases annual bulk material demands by 3-9 %, shifts preferences from solar to wind and from local production of hydrogen to ship imports, and shows distinct industrial process route choices. These findings suggests that energy-material feedbacks should be considered in energy system design when moving to more domestic production of energy technologies.