Abstract for: Towards Carbon Neutrality: Optimizing Power Production and Storage Capacities in Germany and Carbon Pricing in China

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing humankind. This systemic, comprehensive, and global issue has extensive and far-reaching impacts on economic and social development. In this paper, we propose a model for economic optimization of electricity generation and storage capacities given ecological economic objectives and conditions, including carbon pricing. Conventional as well as wind and solar power generation in China and Germany are simulated for 2030 and 2045. We used wind and solar power data of the year 2020 and 2019, respectively, taking into account the changing technical parameters and changing production costs. The focus of this paper is to calculate 1) a reasonable carbon price facilitating China's emission reduction in 2030, and 2) the most economical allocation of wind and solar power generation capacities and chemical and mechanical energy storages for Germany to achieve carbon neutrality in 2045. For a 100% renewable energy supply in the future, we recommend the use of synthetic natural gas (SNG) as the main energy carrier for storage and pumped storage hydropower as a supplement.