Study Shows Western U.S. Could Rely on 35% Renewable Energy by 2017
According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the western U.S. electric grid could support up to 35% of wind and solar power by 2017, without extensive additional infrastructure.
The US Department of Energy’s research agency issued a study whose merits are “technically feasible” – but the mountainous and southwestern states’ network would need to be reevaluated with key changes in operations.
with better coordination of the electricity distribution activities across a wider area, the changes could yield up to 5% solar energy and 30% wind energy on the grid, according to the study.
Furthermore, the system would react to changes in the transmission levels from wind and solar energy output if the schedules of generation are more frequent than the standard hourly system currently in place.
Dr. Debra Lew, NREL project manager for the study said, “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.”
The plan would help to bypass obstacles that would otherwise reach greater costs for infrastructure changes.
“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,” Explained Dr Lew.
Tags: Electric, Electricity, Energy, Power, renewable energy, solar, utilities, Wind
