The Effect of Large Scale Transmission Limitations on Renewable Energy Load Matching for Western U.S.

Download or read book The Effect of Large Scale Transmission Limitations on Renewable Energy Load Matching for Western U.S. written by Victor Diakov and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 7 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The variability of wind and solar energy technologies is perceived as a major obstable to employing otherwise abundant renewable energy resources. Based on the available geographically dispersed data for the Western U.S. (excluding Alaska), we analyze to what extent the geographic diversity of these resources can offset their variability. Without energy storage and assuming unlimited energy flows between regions, wind and PV can meet up to 80% of loads in Western U.S. while less than 10% of the generated power is curtailed. Limiting hourly energy flows by the aggregated transmission line carrying capacities decreases the fraction of the load that can be met with wind and PV generation to approximately 70%.