County Clustering with Bioenergy as Flexible Power Unit in a Renewable Energy System

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript proposes to evaluate County Clustering with Bioenergy as a Flexible Power Unit in a Renewable Energy System. Consequently, it presents an interesting proposal and the data provided are correctly analyzed. However, the manuscript requires further efforts to improve its quality and presentation for this prestigious journal.

A set of comments are set out below (I recommend additions in red):

1. The abstract does not state that the research was carried out in the German counties;
2. The phrase between lines 32-34 is also found in the abstract; recommends its reformulation: With lignite & coal combustion being one of the main sources for greenhouse gases in the energy sector, further expansion of renewable energy sources (RES) is inevitable to reduce emissions and reach climate goals [2];
3. There is no concordance between the sentence between rows 98 - 101 and the phrase from the methodology between 103 - 106 as regards the content of subchapters 2.1 and 2.2.;
4. Detailing the notion of “municipal waste” and the connection with the research;  
5. In methodology

• clearly state the period or year in which the research was conducted, both for 2.1 (including the period for which the time series were defined) and for 2.2;
• for section 2.1 to introduce a table with the variables included in the analysis in the form of time series (with units of measure and mode of expression / determination);
• highlight the link between variables 2.1 and 2.2. for a closer connection between the two parts of the article;
• to specify in detail what it represents and what the application of the RES model implies;
• in the last column table 1 are the values of the model, but to specify clearly which validation indicator of the model is calculated;
• detailing the BioPot model with clear specification of the steps included in the model;
• presentation of a summary table with the load profiles determined and used;
• under table 2, row 169, it appears: Based on the input parameters population size and area size within the county, the biomass availability for each month is calculated in the model. Fill in and specify the model you are referring to;
• present in detail the methodology for establishing the 10 clusters;

6. To the "Conclusions", add some elements regarding the limitation of the research;

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

thank you very much for your helpful feedback! We have revised the manuscript according to your comments and suggestions. Please find attached our reply in detail. We hope to have improved the manuscript to your satisfaction and remain

With kind regards

Laura Stößel

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

It is a very well researched and very well presented paper. The only two items that I would like the authors to consider and, mention at least, are:

1. the influence of the EU and, for instance, the Green Deal, on the processes and developments elaborated on in the paper.  
2. a brief reflection on the possibility of best practice sharing, i.e. emulation of experiences to other EU or OECD member-states. 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

thank you very much for the positive feedback! Your suggestions of including the European perspective is very helpful! We have added a paragraph to the topic in section 5 "Conclusions and Outlook" (lines 433-437).

We hope to have improved the manuscript to your satisfaction and remain

With kind regards,

Laura Stößel

Reviewer 3 Report

The Authors have analysed a significant topic, particularly in countries with a well-developed RES system. The article has a high scientific and substantive level. I recommend the article for publication in "Energies". 

Author Response

Dear Reviewer,

thank you very much for your positive feedback and the recommendation for publication!

With kind regards,

Laura Stößel

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript that proposes the evaluation of the county cluster with bioenergy as a flexible supply unit in a renewable energy system, has been improved according to the recommendations. After the improvement, all the aspects included in the review_1 were clarified..

However, in lines 100-102 the phrase appears: “2.1. The clustering method for rural counties in Germany is described in section. Time series for both power generation from RES and demand loads are modeled, further described in section 2.2. ”

What about this 2.2? Please correct