With large parts of the world moving toward renewable energies, there is an urgent need to organize this large-scale transition effectively. This paper presents a new methodology to guide the planning and siting of renewable electricity generation for countries or larger geographical regions. Its flexible approach accounts for the specific boundary conditions, constraints and available resources of the region of interest and enables solutions that optimize the interplay between the various types of generation. Evolution strategy permits a simultaneous optimization of the placement and the share of renewable electricity generation technologies that are to be added to a system, while most efficiently combining the new with the existing electricity generation and respecting the constraints of the electrical grid. Using Switzerland as case study, we demonstrate the method’s ability to devise national installation scenarios that are efficient, realistic with respect to land use and grid infrastructure and reduce significantly the need for seasonal storage. We show how the spatio-temporal variability of weather-driven electricity generation can be exploited to benefit the electrical system as a whole.

随着世界大部分地区转向可再生能源，迫切需要有效地组织这种大规模转型。本文提出了一种指导国家或更大地理区域可再生能源发电规划和选址的新方法。其灵活的方法考虑了感兴趣区域的特定边界条件、约束和可用资源，并支持优化各种发电类型之间相互作用的解决方案。演进策略允许同时优化要添加到系统中的可再生发电技术的布局和份额，同时最有效地将新发电与现有发电相结合，并尊重电网的约束。以瑞士为例，我们展示了该方法设计国家安装场景的能力，这些场景在土地使用和电网基础设施方面是有效的、现实的，并显着减少了对季节性存储的需求。我们展示了如何利用天气驱动发电的时空变化来使整个电力系统受益。