Potential Climatic Impacts and Reliability of Very Large-Scale Wind Farms

Abstract and PDF report are also available on the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change website (http://globalchange.mit.edu/).Meeting future world energy needs while addressing climate change requires large-scale deployment of low or zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emission technologies such as wind energy. The widespread availability of wind power has fueled legitimate interest in this renewable energy source as one of the needed technologies. For very large-scale utilization of this resource, there are however potential environmental impacts, and also problems arising from its inherent intermittency, in addition to the present need to lower unit costs. To explore some of these issues, we use a threedimensional climate model to simulate the potential climate effects associated with installation of wind-powered generators over vast areas of land or coastal ocean. Using windmills to meet 10% or more of global energy demand in 2100, could cause surface warming exceeding 1oC over land installations. In contrast, surface cooling exceeding 1oC is computed over ocean installations, but the validity of simulating the impacts of windmills by simply increasing the ocean surface drag needs further study. Significant warming or cooling remote from both the land and ocean installations, and alterations of the global distributions of rainfall and clouds also occur. These results are influenced by the competing effects of increases in roughness and decreases in wind speed on near-surface turbulent heat fluxes, the differing nature of land and ocean surface friction, and the dimensions of the installations parallel and perpendicular to the prevailing winds. These results are also dependent on the accuracy of the model used, and the realism of the methods applied to simulate windmills. Additional theory and new field observations will be required for their ultimate validation. Intermittency of wind power on daily, monthly and longer time scales as computed in these simulations and inferred from meteorological observations, poses a demand for one or more options to ensure reliability, including backup generation capacity, very long distance power transmission lines, and onsite energy storage, each with specific economic and/or technological challenges.This study received support from the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, which is funded by a consortium of government, industry and foundation sponsors

Investigation on electricity market designs enabling demand response and wind generation

Demand Response (DR) comprises some reactions taken by the end-use customers to decrease or shift the electricity consumption in response to a change in the price of electricity or a specified incentive payment over time. Wind energy is one of the renewable energies which has been increasingly used throughout the world. The intermittency and volatility of renewable energies, wind energy in particular, pose several challenges to Independent System Operators (ISOs), paving the way to an increasing interest on Demand Response Programs (DRPs) to cope with those challenges. Hence, this thesis addresses various electricity market designs enabling DR and Renewable Energy Systems (RESs) simultaneously. Various types of DRPs are developed in this thesis in a market environment, including Incentive-Based DR Programs (IBDRPs), Time-Based Rate DR Programs (TBRDRPs) and combinational DR programs on wind power integration. The uncertainties of wind power generation are considered through a two-stage Stochastic Programming (SP) model. DRPs are prioritized according to the ISO’s economic, technical, and environmental needs by means of the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method. The impacts of DRPs on price elasticity and customer benefit function are addressed, including the sensitivities of both DR parameters and wind power scenarios. Finally, a two-stage stochastic model is applied to solve the problem in a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) approach. The proposed model is applied to a modified IEEE test system to demonstrate the effect of DR in the reduction of operation cost.A Resposta Dinâmica dos Consumidores (DR) compreende algumas reações tomadas por estes para reduzir ou adiar o consumo de eletricidade, em resposta a uma mudança no preço da eletricidade, ou a um pagamento/incentivo específico. A energia eólica é uma das energias renováveis que tem sido cada vez mais utilizada em todo o mundo. A intermitência e a volatilidade das energias renováveis, em particular da energia eólica, acarretam vários desafios para os Operadores de Sistema (ISOs), abrindo caminho para um interesse crescente nos Programas de Resposta Dinâmica dos Consumidores (DRPs) para lidar com esses desafios. Assim, esta tese aborda os mercados de eletricidade com DR e sistemas de energia renovável (RES) simultaneamente. Vários tipos de DRPs são desenvolvidos nesta tese em ambiente de mercado, incluindo Programas de DR baseados em incentivos (IBDRPs), taxas baseadas no tempo (TBRDRPs) e programas combinados (TBRDRPs) na integração de energia eólica. As incertezas associadas à geração eólica são consideradas através de um modelo de programação estocástica (SP) de dois estágios. Os DRPs são priorizados de acordo com as necessidades económicas, técnicas e ambientais do ISO por meio da técnica para ordem de preferência por similaridade com a solução ideal (TOPSIS). Os impactes dos DRPs na elasticidade do preço e na função de benefício ao cliente são abordados, incluindo as sensibilidades dos parâmetros de DR e dos cenários de potência eólica. Finalmente, um modelo estocástico de dois estágios é aplicado para resolver o problema numa abordagem de programação linear inteira mista (MILP). O modelo proposto é testado num sistema IEEE modificado para demonstrar o efeito da DR na redução do custo de operação

Community Wind 101: A Primer for Policymakers

Provides an overview of a model for wind power development based on local ownership. Reviews innovative examples, economic benefits for the community, benefits for clean energy development, obstacles, and state and federal policy options to address them

Accelerating U.S. Clean Energy Deployment: Investor Policy Priorities

International investment to mitigate climate change is far below levels needed to reach the two-degree target. The International Energy Agency estimates that an average of an additional $1 trillion in incremental financing for clean energy is needed to meet the temperature target. In September 2014, over 350 investors representing$24 trillion in assets issued the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change, calling on governments to create an ambitious global agreement that includes a meaningful price on carbon -- the "Clean Trillion."This paper connects the Clean Trillion goal to the current United States climate and clean energy policy framework, which is a mixture of federal, state, and local initiatives. The paper outlines the 2015 U.S. policy priorities of the Policy Working Group of the Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), a network of more than 110 institutional investors primarily based in the U.S., focused on investment risks and opportunities associated with climate change

Sustainable energy: choices, problems and opportunities

About the Book: The world's dependence on fossil fuels is widely acknowledged to be a major cause of rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Thus there is an urgent need to develop energy sources with lower environmental impact, with attention focusing on renewable energy sources. Concise, authoritative, up-to-date and readable, this book reviews various energy technologies, as well as taking a critical look at the political, social and economic aspects. Throughout, the emphasis is on renewable energy sources (wind, wave, solar, biomass, etc), but a discussion of fossil fuels and nuclear power is also presented. This timely book, written by recognised experts, will be welcomed by those in the energy industries as well as by policy-makers, consultants and engineers. Students and lecturers will also find the material invaluable

Do British wind generators behave strategically in response to the Western Link interconnector?

In Britain, the key source of renewable generation is wind, most abundant on the west coast of Scotland, where there is relatively little demand. For this reason, an interconnector, the Western Link, was built to take electricity closer to demand. When the Link is operating, payments by National Grid to constrain wind farms not to produce will be lower, we may predict, since fewer or less restrictive constraints need be imposed. But the Link has not been working consistently. We empirically estimate the link’s value. Focusing on the three most recent episodes of outage, starting on 4th May 2018 up to 25th September 2019, our essential approach is to treat these outages as a natural experiment using hourly data. Our results reveal that the Link had an important role in costs saved and price constrained and MWh curtailed reductions. We estimate a cost-saving of almost £30m. However, the saving appears to drop over time, so we investigate wind farms’ behavior. We find that wind farms behave strategically since the accuracy of wind forecasting depends on the relevant prices impacting their earnings

Analysing long-term interactions between demand response and different electricity markets using a stochastic market equilibrium model. ESRI WP585, February 2018

Power systems based on renewable energy sources (RES) are characterised by increasingly distributed, volatile and uncertain supply leading to growing requirements for flexibility. In this paper, we explore the role of demand response (DR) as a source of flexibility that is considered to become increasingly important in future. The majority of research in this context has focussed on the operation of power systems in energy only markets, mostly using deterministic optimisation models. In contrast, we explore the impact of DR on generator investments and profits from different markets, on costs for different consumers from different markets, and on CO2 emissions under consideration of the uncertainties associated with the RES generation. We also analyse the effect of the presence of a feed-in premium (FIP) for RES generation on these impacts. We therefore develop a novel stochastic mixed complementarity model in this paper that considers both operational and investment decisions, that considers interactions between an energy market, a capacity market and a feed-in premium and that takes into account the stochasticity of electricity generation by RES. We use a Benders decomposition algorithm to reduce the computational expenses of the model and apply the model to a case study based on the future Irish power system. We find that DR particularly increases renewable generator profits. While DR may reduce consumer costs from the energy market, these savings may be (over)compensated by increasing costs from the capacity market and the feed-in premium. This result highlights the importance of considering such interactions between different markets

Renewable energy target scheme report of the expert panel

An examination of the operation, costs and benefits of the RET, including the economic, environmental and social impacts, the extent to which the objectives of the scheme are being met and the interaction of the RET with other Commonwealth and state and territory policies. Introduction The Review of the Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme was jointly announced by the Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, the Minister for Industry, and the Hon Greg Hunt MP, the Minister for the Environment, on 17 February 2014. The Terms of Reference state that the review is to examine the operation, costs and benefits of the RET scheme including the economic, environmental and social impacts, the extent to which the objectives of the scheme are being met and the interaction of the RET with other Australian Government and state and territory government policies. The review is to provide advice on whether the objectives of the RET scheme are still appropriate and the range of options available for reducing its impact on electricity prices