New study says increased solar and wind power can be added to the grid reducing CO2
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) just completed a study that says that more wind and solar power can be added to the current grid with less infrastructure cost than previously thought. Increasing the amount of solar and wind power to 35% of the grid’s electricity by 2017 will need some changes in standard operating procedures but not the huge costs initially anticipated.
According to the study, some infrastructure changes will be necessary simply to hook new solar and wind farms to the grid but the need for backup generation that currently exists because of the unpredictability of those power sources can be minimized saving a great deal of money and lowering CO2 emissions.
“If key changes can be made to standard operating procedures, our research shows that large amounts of wind and solar can be incorporated onto the grid without a lot of backup generation,” said Dr. Debra Lew, NREL project manager for the study. “When you coordinate the operations between utilities across a large geographic area, you decrease the effect of the variability of wind and solar energy sources, mitigating the unpredictability of Mother Nature.”
What will be needed is for utilities to coordinate over a larger area and “and schedule their generation deliveries, or sales, on a more frequent basis.” That means shortening the timeframe in which generators schedule deliveries. Now generators schedule the amount of energy that needs to be delivered each hour. Shortening that time frame will allow generators to take into account the ebb and flow of solar and wind power.
The study focused on the the WestConnect group of utilities in the mountain and southwest states. By better coordinating between the group of utilities and increasing the generator schedule of deliveries, CO2 can be lowered by 25 to 45 percent and 40 percent less fuel will be needed.
Other results of the study were:
- Existing transmission capacity can be more fully utilized to reduce the amount of new transmission that needs to be built.
- To facilitate the integration of wind and solar energy, coordinating the operations of utilities can provide substantial savings by reducing the need for additional back-up generation, such as natural gas-burning plants.
- Use of wind and solar forecasts in utility operations to predict when and where it will be windy and sunny is essential for cost-effectively integrating these renewable energy sources.
Wind and solar will not be as costly to connect to the grid with substantial savings in carbon emissions and fuel costs. This is a much better scenario than previously assumed.
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