Renewables

The first part of decarbonization is…

Electrification

Electrification

Replacing the usage of other fuels with electricity

Potential problems with electrifications

Increases the need on the grid, costly especially without rebates, lots of resources are needed, supply chain issues due to tariffs and more

_% of US greenhouse gas emissions are from Electric Power

25%

In order to decrease US greenhouse gas emissions from electric power…

We should replace fossil-based energy generation with carbon-free sources.

Common carbon-free sources for electrification

Solar, nuclear, hydro, wind, and geothermal

Electricity can be defined as

Electron flow along a wire

Charge (q, coulomb)

An accumulation of electrons (-) or protons (+) in a piece of matter, a carrier of energy

Current (I, ampere = coulomb/second)

The movement of electrons

Voltage (V, volts = joule/coulomb)

Difference between the electric energy density at two points, measured over a distance

Resistance (R, ohms)

A measure of the impact of the internal physical stucture of a material on the free flow of charge

Power (P, Watt)

The rate of producing energy; a current pushed by a voltage; P = IV

Energy (E, Watt-hours)

The total quantity of work done

Difference between energy and power

Energy is the capacity to do work while power is the rate at which work is done, or how fast energy is transferred.

Three major components of electricity grid

Generation, transmission, distribution

Example of electricity grid components

A power plant will generate electricity, it gets transmitted over long distances via the transmission lines, and then the distribution line will carry the energy to houses

The higher the voltage is for transmission….

the more efficiently you can transmit electricity across long distance with minimal losses.

Alternating currents allow us to…

Step up and down voltage much easier than direct current

Why transmit power?

Reliability: Maintenance such as equipment failure, and higher reliability is expensive therefore better to share

Economies of scale in generation: technical, social/economic, and aggregation (load factor)

Location of generation: away from people, near resources such as mines, dams, pipelines, good sun/wind

Considerations when building power plants

Economic: capital cost, operating cost, lifetime

Technical: capacity (MW), efficiency, fuel availability

Social/Political: location, health impacts, job impacts

Key consideration when building power plants

Electricity must be consumed immediately. Supply = Demand at an instantaneous level.

The cost of renewables has ____ dramatically over the past 10 to 20 years

Declined

Most renewables are ____ than conventional generation

Cheaper

We are interested in continuing potential for nuclear energy because…

There is a huge reliability issue with solar and wind is that you can’t control when it has output potential. It is dependent on the weather, increasing the likelihood of outages. Therefore we must invest in nuclear energy to avoid such outages.

What is the duck curve?

It show the net load (total demand of a system - any generation from renewables) in every hour of a day

How does the introduction of solar effect the duck curve?

During the middle of the day, at the same time that the demand is the lowest, that’s when the net demand is the highest. The net demand curve starts getting driven really far down. Once you need generation the most (like when the sun goes down) there is a steep line over the course of two hours indicating a ton of power must be generated in a short amount of time.

Problem with the introduction of solar effect on duck curve

Not many power plants can turn on quickly enough to generate power at the steep line (2 hour period when the sun goes down). Extremely dirty peaker generators can and they have high operating costs and high emissions.

Can nuclear power turn on quickly enough? (Duck curve and ramping needs)

No, nuclear cannot. It takes a week to turn on.

What is one of the biggest problems right now in terms of decarbonizing the electric grid?

Solar/wind and nuclear unable to meet ramping needs

Define ‘firm’ up intermittent renewables

If you were to add in not just the cost of solar and wind power, plus however much is needed to deal with periods of immediate electricity needs, how much does it cost to firm up these resources?

What can be done to address the cost of firming up intermittent renewables?

We can store energy, shifting stuff in the belly of the duck to the head. We are using a lot of gas peaker plants right now. We are also utilizing demand flexibility; sometimes utilities will defer the charging until the middle of the night when demand is a lot lower to lower the peak period

Clean firm technologies

Gas combined cycle plants, gas peaking plants with a carbon capture mechanism in place to reach steep ramping periods without the emissions implications

Costs of energy storage are ____

Declining

Role of policy in electriciation

Remove certain regulatory barriers and hurdles to have rapid development of generations and transmissions, such as new interconnection standards for transmission (administrative).

As we are becoming more reliant on energy grids in daily lives and heating/cooling…

It’s important to have reliable electricity because there are extreme climate change events happening, such as heat waves, hurricanes, etc.