The demand for low carbon energy calls for close to 100% renewable power systems, with decarbonization of other energy sectors adding to the anticipated paradigm shift. Rising levels of variable ...inverter-based renewable energy sources (VIBRES) are prompting questions about how such systems will be planned and operated when variable renewable generation becomes the dominant technology. Here, we examine the implications of this paradigm shift with respect to planning, operation and system stability, also addressing the need for integration with other energy vectors, including heat, transport and Power-to-X. We highlight the knowledge gaps and provide recommendations for improved methods and models needed as power systems transform towards 100% VIBRES.
•The paper offers a global analysis of complementarity between wind and solar energy.•Solar-wind complementarity is mapped for land between latitudes 66° S and 66° N.•Complementarity is examined ...regarding PV panel inclination and storage capacity.
The concept of renewable energy sources complementarity has attracted the attention of researchers across the globe over recent years. Studies have been published regularly with focuses on aspects such as new metrics for complementarity assessment, the optimal operation of hybrid power systems based on variable renewables, or mapping resources complementarity in a specific region. This study targets the present literature gap, namely a lack of complementarity study covering explicitly the whole World, based on the same data source and methodology. The research employs Kendall's Tau correlation as the complementarity metric between global solar and wind resources and a pair of indicators such as the solar share and a sizing coefficient usually applied in the domain of hybrid generators. This method allows to conduct a preliminary estimation of a solar and wind energy hybrid generator based on a daily demand of 1 kWh. The data series employed in this study come from NASA’s POWER Project Program, covering the years 2001–2020. This work provides an interesting insight into the global variability of the complementarity between these two variable energy sources. Significant findings of this paper include that Kendall’s Tau ranges between –0.75 and 0.75, in line with previous research for specific regions, thus providing a theoretical maximum for planning. Additionally, the results suggest that in most tropical and subtropical areas, the hybrid solar-wind generator should be dominated by the solar portion to minimize the variability of the total daily energy produced.
This article analyses the trends in primary demand for fossil fuels and renewables, comparing regions with large and small domestic fossil fuel reserves. We focus on countries that hold 80% of global ...fossil fuel reserves and compare them with key countries that have meagre fossil fuel reserves. We show that those countries with large domestic fossil fuel reserves have experienced a large increase in primary energy demand from fossil fuels, but only a moderate or no increase in primary energy from renewables, and in particular from non-hydro renewable energy sources (NHRES), which are assumed to represent the cornerstone of the future transformation of the global energy system. This implies a tremendous threat to climate change mitigation, with only two principal mitigation options for fossil-fuel-rich economies if there is to be compliance with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement: (1) leave the fossil fuels in the ground; and (2) apply carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Combinations of these two options to exploit their respective possibilities synergistically will require strong initiatives and incentives to transform a certain amount of the domestic fossil fuel reserves (including the associated infrastructure) into stranded assets and to create an extensive CCS infrastructure. Our conclusion is that immediate and disruptive changes to the use of fossil fuels and investments in non-carbon-emitting technologies are required if global warming is to be limited to well below 2°C. Collective actions along value chains in business to divert from fossil fuels may be a feasible strategy.
Key policy insights
The main obstacle to compliance with any reasonable warming target is the abundance of fossil fuels, which has maintained and increased momentum towards new fossil-fuelled processes.
So far, there has been no increase in the share of NHRES in total global primary energy demand, with a clear decline in the NHRES share in India and China.
There is an immediate need for the global community to develop fossil fuel strategies and policies.
Policies must account for the global trade flow of products that typically occurs from the newly industrialized fossil fuel-rich countries to the developed countries.
Relying almost entirely on energy from variable renewable resources such as wind and solar energy will require a transformation in the way power systems are planned and operated. This paper outlines ...the necessary steps in creating power systems with the flexibility needed to maintain stability and reliability while relying primarily on variable energy resources. These steps are provided in the form of a comprehensive overview of policies, technical changes, and institutional systems, organized in three development phases: an initial phase (penetration up to about 10%) characterized by relatively mild changes to conventional power system operations and structures; a dynamic middle phase (up to about 50% penetration) characterized by phasing out conventional generation and a concerted effort to wring flexibility from existing infrastructure; and the high penetration phase that inevitably addresses how power systems operate over longer periods of weeks or months when variable generation will be in either short supply, or in over-abundance. Although this transition is likely a decades-long and incremental process and depends on the specifics of each system, the needed policies, research, demonstration projects and institutional changes need to start now precisely because of the complexity of the transformation. The list of policy actions presented in this paper can serve as a guideline to policy makers on effectuating the transition and on tracking the preparedness of systems.
•100% VRES systems: combined analysis of all related technical and policy challenges.•Transition elements: classification of the complete range of challenges in 9 elements.•Development regimes: policy actions in 3 VRES penetration regimes (low-medium-high).•Policies: comprehensive guideline and detailed presentation of policies per regime.•Roadmap: lists of actions per regime act as transition roadmap to 100% VRES systems.
Undoubtedly, the increasing rates of CO2 emissions contribute highly to climate change. Studies stress the importance of understanding the determinants of emissions, in order to implement appropriate ...policies. In the past, literature only looked at the effect of aggregate energy to emissions; while nowadays, with the increasing role of renewables, they aim at evaluating the impacts of renewable and non-renewable energies separately. Also, studies ignored possible cross-dependence among countries; concept particularly important for countries linked by trade or geographical position. Also, only lately, studies focused on developing economies.
In this study, we aim to address these gaps of the literature by estimating the determinants (renewable and non-renewable energy, income and trade openness) of CO2 emissions for the ten biggest electricity generators in Sub-Saharan Africa for the period 1980 to 2011 by employing panel estimation techniques robust to cross dependence. A long-run relationship between the main variables is confirmed. Increases in non-renewable energy consumption intensify pollution while the opposite holds for renewable energy. With regards to direction of causal relationships, we observe a unidirectional causality running from emissions, income, trade and non-renewable energies towards renewable energies; from non-renewable energy to emissions; and from emissions and non-renewable energies to trade.
•We estimate the determinants of CO2 emissions.•Focus on the 10 biggest electricity generators in Sub-Saharan Africa from 1980 to 2011.•A long-run relationship between the main variables is confirmed.•Increases in NRE rise CO2; while increases in RE decrease CO2.•CO2, income, trade and NRE cause RE; NRE cause CO2; while CO2 and NRE cause trade.
Generation scheduling decision-making of power systems with renewable energy and energy storage (ES) is a multistage stochastic programming problem in nature, in which unit commitment (UC) decisions ...have to be made one day ahead before uncertainties are revealed, and hourly economic dispatch (ED) decisions are successively determined when real uncertainty realizations are observed gradually (i.e., nonanticipativity). To this end, inappropriate ED decisions at current hour may cause infeasibility of future ED decisions (i.e., robustness). Thus, how to properly schedule thermal unit outputs and ES charging/ discharging power against uncertainties becomes an important and urgent issue. In this paper, two mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) methods are proposed to solve the scheduling problem of thermal units and ESs with uncertainties while ensuring solution robustness and nonanticipativity: explicit and implicit decision methods. Specifically, explicit decision method directly assumes affine policies between decision variables and uncertainty realizations; implicit decision method explores safe ranges of thermal unit outputs and ES state-of-charge (SOC) levels to guarantees feasibility of future ED solutions. Both methods can guarantee the nonanticipativity and robustness of multistage solutions. Numerical tests illustrate effectiveness of the proposed methods.
In Australia, the National Electricity Market (NEM) has experienced a rapid expansion of Variable Renewable Electricity (VRE) projects, not without obstacles. Entry frictions such as movements in ...Marginal Loss Factors and/or network congestion adversely impacted ∼15% of new projects. Are these the expected results in a workably functioning market, or due to market design defects? Policy advisors have sought to reform the NEM's non-firm, open-access regime. As VRE market shares increase, curtailment will increase rapidly through excess generation and/or network congestion, given the ratio of maximum-to-average wind output is 3 times, and solar PV is 4 times. But access reform focused solely on congestion and curtailment may have unintended consequences as a careful analysis of the difference between average and marginal curtailment rates demonstrates. Malalignment between market conventions and access policy may distort entry, raise consumer prices and harm welfare. Our model results confirm that switching from open- to priority access in Australia's NEM and REZ in particular damages consumer and producer welfare materially.
•Scaling-up Renewables results in rising curtailment rates.•Marginal curtailment rises at 3-4× average curtailment rates.•Priority access mimics marginal curtailment rates and constrains entry.•Open access mimics average curtailment rates and shares the burden.•Open access with optimal entry is found to be welfare enhancing.
Our study shows that links between economic growth and energy consumption (both expressed in per capita terms) differed for renewables and non-renewables for income panels over the period 1971 to ...2011. Renewables are mainly found to support the neutrality hypothesis. Only renewable totals in low and lower middle income (LLMI) countries are found to drive economic growth. The feedback, growth and conservative hypotheses strongly feature with non-renewables (total and industrial). Our results are derived by linking different definitions of energy consumption with economic growth for 89 countries divided into LLMI; upper middle income (UMI); and high income (HI) panels.
•The feedback effect features in non-renewable and non-renewable industrial energy.•There is sign of feedback in residential energy in LLMICs.•Economic growth in LLMICs encourages industrial energy.•Economic growth boosts non-renewables in HIs and non-renewable industrial in UMICs.•Neutrality is supported by renewable industrial and residential (for all panels).
Given the recent increasing public focus on climate change issues, the share of electricity generation by renewable energy resources is increasing day by day. Increased renewables share will give us ...robust, sustainable, and climate-friendly energy systems for the future. Renewable energy penetration with the current power systems needs substantial research, planning and development which are now the primary focus throughout the world. In this study, a global renewable energy scenario is explained in detail in contrast with India, considering a case study elucidating the comprehensive review of the Gujarat state in India. The primary focus is on Gujarat state’s actions plans to pertain to harvest renewable energy and maximizing its share in the energy mix. This study examines the actions and the policies adopted by the Gujarat government to overcome the potential barriers in order to support non-conventional as well as renewable energy development. It also investigates the numerous techno-economic and social constraints with possible solutions in promoting the deployment of upcoming renewable energy resources across Gujarat. This study can be used as a guideline for the government, policymakers, utilities, stakeholders and researchers to promote an increased renewable energy share in Gujarat as well as at other places around the globe.
•Investigation of EKC within 36 Asian countries.•Analyses of access to electricity’s impact on CO2 damage within 36 Asian countries.•Panel Quantiles via Moments methodology following Machado and ...Silva 85.•The reducing effect of access to electricity on CO2 damage.•The increasing effect of agricultural activities on CO2 damage.
Energy poverty and environmental degradation are two main important issues in the literature of energy and environmental degradation. Energy poverty might affect adversely the health, productivity the environment. In this study, the effects of energy access on the environment are examined. Although there exist some similar studies in the related literature, our study differently (a) uses CO2 damage data, (b) performs parameter estimations corresponding to different quantiles instead of fixed-parameter estimations. This paper hence aims at analyzing the impacts of access to electricity on CO2 damage in Asian countries through panel quantile regression estimations by employing the panel data for 36 Asian countries for the period 1997–2017. CO2 damage is the cost of damage caused by CO2 emissions stemming from fossil fuel use and the manufacture of cement. While the main interest was to investigate the influence of access to electricity on CO2 damage, the variables of renewable energy and agricultural activities were also employed as control variables in the quantile estimations. The findings reveal that (i) Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis holds in panel data which in turn implies that as economies develop, the CO2 damage will decrease, (ii) as access to electricity increases, the CO2 damage will decrease as well, (iii) the renewable energy use also lowers the CO2 damage and (iv) agricultural activities on the other hand increase the CO2 damage in panel data. Finally, this paper suggests that the authorities increase access to electricity to diminish indoor and outdoor pollution.
PDF
