The technical, geographical, and economic feasibility for solar energy to supply the energy needs of the US

Fthenakis, Vasilis; Mason, James; Zweibel, K.

doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2008.08.011

Cited by 269 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Average costs for transmission from the US southwest to consumers are about 2 ¢/kWh (Fthenakis et al 2009); the same cost is given by Desertec (2010) and DLR (2006) for transmission from the Sahara and Saudi Desert to Europe, so that investments for transmission lines could be in the range of 2 ¢/kWh or about 1/3 of the total system costs of PV. Additionally, storage is necessary in most configurations to overcome intermittency.…”

Section: Learning Curves For Pvmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Taking into account increased efficiencies from use of electricity, Fthenakis et al (2009) argue that the energy demand in the US will be about the same in 2050 as it was in 2009, taking into account economic growth. This argument does not fully carry over to the global situation as economic growth in developing countries might be higher than in developed countries.…”

Section: The Share Of Solar In Future Energy Supplymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, storage is necessary in most configurations to overcome intermittency. Costs of long-term storage can add 3-4 ¢/kWh (Fthenakis et al 2009); storage for up to 24 h can be thermal storage with costs of *1 ¢/kWh; but thermal storage needs CSP (Biello 2009), which is now about 25% more expensive than PV (Mahon 2011). Both, storage and transmission lines further increase employment and investment in the sector of renewable energy.…”

Section: Learning Curves For Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investment and employment from large-scale photovoltaics up to 2050

et al. 2012

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Investments in renewable energy were at US$211 billion in 2010 and developing economies overtook developed ones for the first time in terms of new financial investments in renewable energy. Photovoltaics for generation of electricity from sunlight has the highest growth rate among the competing forms of renewable energy and has now begun to achieve grid parity in some regions. If these trends of investments continue, solar energy will play a major economic role. We analyze these developments and assess the ensuing amounts of investment and employment for a range of sizes of the sector of solar energy. We find that by 2050 electricity from photovoltaics could cover up to 90% of total global energy demand, with a then global capital investment in our main scenario in photovoltaic manufacturing capacity at 500 billion US$ 2010 by around 2030 and 1,500 billion by 2050. Employment in photovoltaic manufacturing is predicted to rise to 6 million by 2050. Sensitivity analysis with respect to the core parameters of assumptions is supplied.

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Section: Learning Curves For Pvmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: The Share Of Solar In Future Energy Supplymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Learning Curves For Pvmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Investment and employment from large-scale photovoltaics up to 2050

et al. 2012

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“…A major challenge exists with respect to wind and solar-namely, balancing their intermittent supply in order to ensure that electricity is available where and when it is needed [17][18][19][20][21]. Especially in the case of batteries, such storage remains expensive at a seasonal scale, although the costs have fallen significantly for diurnal variations [22].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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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“…Establishing such networks is a natural next step if such networks can provide dispatchable electricity at low costs. Research groups and large industrial consortia have proposed several continental and transcontinental solar networks, including Desertec EUMENA (connecting Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East) (13,16), an Asian−Australian energy infrastructure (14,15), and the "US Solar Grand Plan" (12,20), a predominantly renewable energy supply system using high-insolation areas in the US Southwest. These networks all still need large amounts of overcapacity and storage, even if solar, wind, and geothermal are combined (19,(21)(22)(23)(24).…”

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confidence: 99%

Solar electricity supply isolines of generation capacity and storage

Grossmann

Steininger

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The recent sharp drop in the cost of photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation accompanied by globally rapidly increasing investment in PV plants calls for new planning and management tools for large-scale distributed solar networks. Of major importance are methods to overcome intermittency of solar electricity, i.e., to provide dispatchable electricity at minimal costs. We find that pairs of electricity generation capacity G and storage S that give dispatchable electricity and are minimal with respect to S for a given G exhibit a smooth relationship of mutual substitutability between G and S. These isolines between G and S support the solving of several tasks, including the optimal sizing of generation capacity and storage, optimal siting of solar parks, optimal connections of solar parks across time zones for minimizing intermittency, and management of storage in situations of far below average insolation to provide dispatchable electricity. G−S isolines allow determining the cost-optimal pair (G,S) as a function of the cost ratio of G and S. G−S isolines provide a method for evaluating the effect of geographic spread and time zone coverage on costs of solar electricity.large-scale solar network | photovoltaics | US super grid | solar intermittency | dispatchable solar electricity

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The technical, geographical, and economic feasibility for solar energy to supply the energy needs of the US

Cited by 269 publications

References 14 publications

Investment and employment from large-scale photovoltaics up to 2050

Investment and employment from large-scale photovoltaics up to 2050

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

Solar electricity supply isolines of generation capacity and storage

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