Cost and Transmission Requirements for Reliable Solar Electricity from Deserts in China and the United States

Labordena, Mercè; Lilliestam, Johan

doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.850

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…We apply an inflation and exchange rate to all components of technology costs, according to the reference date of publication and the projected date they are based on [73]. The resulted LCOEs include transmission costs to the extent that the model accounts for line losses, which is consistent with approaches taken in previous studies of regional energy systems [45,74,75]. Finally, we consider the possible constraints that geographic factors could impose on the scaling up of domestic renewable power in Switzerland, and imported offshore wind and CSP.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Additionally, although private European investment is already in place, political support to CSP developments from European countries remains undefined. A potential benefit of CSP is that the integration of several hours' thermal storage capacity, as has become the industry standard, means that CSP can be used to cover evening power demands, typically a peak load period after most of all of the PV capacity has gone offline [44,45]. Making CSP somewhat less attractive is that it is also seasonal, with a summer peak, although this is less pronounced than for domestic PV supply.…”

Section: Swiss Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do We Need Gas as a Bridging Fuel? A Case Study of the Electricity System of Switzerland

2017

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Many future electricity scenarios, including those from the International Energy Agency, use natural gas to bridge the transition to renewables, in particular as a means of balancing intermittent generation from new renewables. Given that such strategies may be inconsistent with strategies to limit climate change to below 2 • C, we address the question of whether such use of gas is necessary or cost effective. We conduct a techno-economic case study of Switzerland, using a cost optimization model. We explore a range of electricity costs, comparing scenarios in which gas is used as a source of base-load power, a source of balancing capacity, and not used at all. Costs at the high end of the range show that a complete decarbonization increases system-wide costs by 3% compared to a gas bridging scenario, and 13-46% compared to a carbon-intensive scenario, depending on the relative shares of solar and wind. Costs at the low end of the range show that system-wide costs are equal or lower for both completely decarbonized and gas bridging scenarios. In conclusion, gas delivers little to no cost savings as a bridging fuel in a system that switches to wind and solar.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Swiss Case Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Do We Need Gas as a Bridging Fuel? A Case Study of the Electricity System of Switzerland

2017

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“…Feed-in tariffs, quota systems and investment schemes have triggered investment in many different countries, both in western democracies, such as Germany (a feed-in tariff) and the US (mainly quota schemes), and in more authoritarian systems, such as China (especially feed-in tariffs) [69,70]. All types of support schemes can be complemented with local contents clauses, mandating a certain share of components to be manufactured in the host country-a key issue for the economic diversification effects of a renewables expansion as highlighted by our respondents (see also [26,43]).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers, Risks and Policies for Renewables in the Gulf States

Lilliestam

Patt

2015

Energies

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Abstract:The countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have both large fossil fuel resources and vast renewable energy potentials. Here, we investigate in a literature meta-analysis and a survey, whether there is a need for renewables in the GCC, what barriers and risks presently deter investments, and what possible policy-solutions could be. We find that there is a long-term need for renewables, to diversify the economy and prepare for a post-fossil fuel era. In the short term, two main obstacles deter investments: inefficient bureaucracy, and the combination of fossil fuel/electricity subsidies and the absence of renewable energy support. Removing fossil fuel and consumption subsidies or introducing a support scheme could make investments in renewables profitable. Eliminating energy subsidies appears particularly beneficial to the economic outlook but this seems particularly difficult to implement, due to the political economy of rentier states. Increased bureaucratic transparency and efficiency is needed, so that potentially attractive investments can rapidly and predictably obtain the necessary permissions. Hence, the administrative and economic environment for renewable energy investments in the GCC is not right today, and no breakthrough is on the horizon, but there is a range of policy solutions to enable investments in the future.

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“…Currently, wind-, hydro-, solarphotovoltaic (PV) and solar thermal energy are all commercially available technologies that compete for a share in the renewable energy market. Solar thermal energy already benefits from large scale thermal energy storage [1] but it is more expensive than its competitors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow Resistance of Randomly Packed Beds of Crushed Rock and Ellipsoidal Particles using CFD

Hoffmann¹,

Manatsa²,

Houtappels³

2022

JFFHMT

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Rock bed thermal energy storage is a cost-effective solution to store waste heat from a solarized Brayton cycle for use in a Rankine cycle after sunset. However, rock bed thermal energy storage systems for utility scale concentrated solar power are huge and require multiple air inlets and outlets. As a result, the flow inside the bed is fully three dimensional and deviates considerably from plug flow conditions usually encountered in chemical reactors. Designing a rock bed thermal energy storage system for the minimum capital cost and pumping power depend on reliable predictions of the fluid flow paths and temperature profiles in the bed. Particle size and shape have a significant influence on how the particles will pack down, which in turn influences the flow pattern in the bed, and hence the pressure drop and heat transfer characteristics of the bed. In this work, we discuss the characterization of crushed rock particles and concluded that there are benefits in approximating particles by mono-dispersed ellipsoids. We used discrete element modelling to generate packed beds of the ellipsoidal particles, and computational fluid dynamics to model the flow in the interstitial voids. This way, we successfully captured the directional effect of the flow resistance for ellipsoidal particles in terms of sphericity, , porosity , particle diameter Dve, and particle Reynolds number ReOur current model under-predicted the pressure drop across a packed bed of crushed rock particles.

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Cost and Transmission Requirements for Reliable Solar Electricity from Deserts in China and the United States

Cited by 11 publications

References 9 publications

Do We Need Gas as a Bridging Fuel? A Case Study of the Electricity System of Switzerland

Do We Need Gas as a Bridging Fuel? A Case Study of the Electricity System of Switzerland

Barriers, Risks and Policies for Renewables in the Gulf States

Flow Resistance of Randomly Packed Beds of Crushed Rock and Ellipsoidal Particles using CFD

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