Wind Deployment Research Articles

Reducing Intermittency Using Distributed Wind Energy: Are Wind Patterns Sufficiently Diversified Within France?

Wind energy (WE) is a volatile source of electricity production. In France and worldwide, the development of renewable energy sources (RES) is increasing the cost of the energy system; these will increase further to reach the WE target of 33.2 GW of installed capacity by 2028. Moreover, intermittency decreases as the installed capacity is geographically dispersed, hence the importance of investigating distributed wind deployment strategies in complementary locations. However, identifying potential wind energy locations that provide complementarity is challenging, especially given the inherent chaotic nature of wind during time. The objective of this research is to propose an adequate methodology to cluster wind time series (TS) to provide insights on smart planning considering distributed wind energy (WE) production. Results reveal that Shape Based Distance (SBD) classifiers perform best in clustering TS and appear relevant in identifying potential wind complementary locations in France. Ultimately, intermittency measures show that, in the case of complementary wind locations, availability (AVA) can increase by about 31% and the variability can decrease by about 30%.

An Evolving Blue Economy: Exploring the Future for Marine Renewable Energy

Abstract Offshore energy generation is one of the fastest-growing U.S. marine sectors, ranging from expanding deployment of offshore wind to rapid development and testing of technologies for energy conversion from waves, tides, ocean currents, and gradients in temperature, salinity, and pressure. Generating energy from the offshore environment creates expanded opportunities to improve upon the collection of ocean and coastal-derived data and information that will support economic and maritime growth, the management of resources, and solutions to address societal and climate issues. Despite its many promises and challenges, barriers remain for widespread implementation of offshore energy generation technologies that address the nation's energy needs and climate change. A town hall was convened to present a vision of the changing ocean-scape through the lens of marine renewable technologies and to explore innovative solutions that these technologies might offer to support the New Blue Economy.

Support for Advanced Nuclear Power Growing in the United States

Global clean energy and decarbonization goals are forcing governments around the world to take a hard look at their energy resource portfolios and future plans for meeting increasing electricity demand. While the last several years have seen a significant uptick in the deployment of solar, both terrestrial and offshore wind, and battery storage here in the United States, nuclear energy is once again being considered a critical energy generation source. Nuclear power, and in particular small modular nuclear reactors, are being considered as carbon‐free power generation sources to strategically meet new loads.

Scaling up solar and wind electricity: empirical modelling and a disruptive scenario for their deployments in Aotearoa New Zealand

ABSTRACT Deployment of wind and solar electricity technologies is crucial for the energy transition, yet anticipated deployment rates differ widely often underestimating actual deployments. This issue is significant for countries like Aotearoa New Zealand, leading the way in major energy transitions. This study addresses two main issues: the historical underestimation of deployment rates and the need to synthesise various future scenarios to assess their potential impacts on the energy system. To address these problems, an empirical modelling approach based on logistic growth is adopted to create and analyse scenarios for the deployment of solar and wind technologies in New Zealand. We propose two scenarios: a reference growth scenario, which represents prevailing estimations for the deployment of solar and wind from previous forecasts; and a disruptive scenario, which anticipates a more rapid deployment pace. Both scenarios envision phasing out fossil fuels by 2030 but differ in the remaining electricity supply. In the disruptive scenario, the installed electricity generation broadens, in which solar and wind generation could represent 72% of the electricity generation capacity by 2050. Our findings emphasise the transformative potential of rapid wind and solar technologies deployment and highlight the importance of preparing for a disruptive future that challenges conventional expectations.

Identifying the influence of climate policy uncertainty and oil prices on modern renewable energies: novel evidence from the United States

Abstract The policy uncertainty surrounding climate change can intensify the urgency of implementing climate policies and influence investment decisions, thereby serving as a catalyst for policy transformation. In this context, given its withdrawal from and subsequent re-commitment to the Paris Agreement, the United States (US) may experience policy uncertainty over climate change. Given this backdrop, it is of paramount importance to explore how the uncertainties caused by shifts in climate policy affect clean energy. This study delves into the impact of climate policy uncertainty and oil prices on modern renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, geothermal, and biofuels. The most recent monthly data from 1989 to 2023 are used by conducting the Residual Augmented Least Squares (RALS) methodology. The empirical findings show that the uncertainty surrounding climate policy is leading to a shift in the US energy composition, with a focus on solar energy, wind energy, and biofuels. Moreover, the fluctuation in oil prices has a significant effect on the deployment of wind and biofuels, but no discernible effect on solar power. These findings provide significant insights for aligning climate policy in the US with Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, highlighting the crucial importance of encouraging investments in solar energy, wind energy, and biofuels. Graphical abstract

Machine learning-based uncertainty analysis in power system planning: Insights and pathways for decarbonization

This study performs an extensive uncertainty analysis of decarbonization pathways for the Canadian power system. By leveraging machine learning (ML) techniques, we represent complexities and nonlinear behaviors of the power system, which are challenging to observe using traditional modeling methods due to computational limitations. We further utilize K-means clustering and statistical methods to identify correlations, investigate the effects of uncertainty in key parameters (capital costs, demand, and carbon tax), and identify opportunities for diversification of the power generation mix. Key findings include the increased flexibility of gas combined cycle (generation mean 4.8 TWh, installed capacity mean 4.8 GW) over gas simple cycle (generation mean 22.3 GWh, 0 installed capacity) in response to carbon tax, highlighting its role in a low-carbon future. Variations in solar and wind deployment rates, influenced by capacity factors and location-specific costs, underscore the necessity of a flexible grid system. This analysis reveals important correlations between renewable deployment, and transmission expansion and gas combined cycle reliance. The results also highlight minimal sensitivity of hydroelectric power generation (∼ 43 % of scenarios) to changes in input parameters. The novelty of our work lies in proposing a comprehensive approach which uses ML techniques to go beyond the capabilities of existing models, specifically by performing extensive uncertainty analysis and provides key insights into system behavior, causative factors, and an expanded breadth of potential pathways. Taken together, this proposed approach lays a foundation for strategic planning and policy formulation.

The wind-solar hybrid energy could serve as a stable power source at multiple time scale in China mainland

The instability of wind and solar power hinders their penetration into electrical transmission networks. Hybrid wind-solar power generation can mitigate the instability of wind or solar power. However, research on complementary methods and the temporal distribution of wind and solar energies remains insufficient. In this study, well-validated and used high-resolution reanalysis data were used to explore the complementarity between wind and solar power on multiple time scales across China mainland. Researchers have found that wind and solar energies are strongly complementary from seasonal to hourly time scales. Wind-solar hybrid power generation can increase the availability of renewable energy by 15%–25 %, and a continuous renewable power supply can be achieved during daytime hours. In addition, the authors found that the complementary strength between wind and solar power could be enhanced by adjusting their proportions. This study highlights that hybrid wind-solar systems can provide a stable energy source. The complementary deployment of wind and solar energies should be considered in future applications.

Technical and economic challenges for floating offshore wind deployment in Italy and in the Mediterranean Sea

AbstractOffshore wind is nowadays already well developed in the North European countries. Ninety‐nine percent of the offshore wind turbines are installed on fixed foundations in shallow waters. For areas with water depth greater than 50–60 m, the floating wind is the cheapest and mostly used technology. This technology is going to reach the commercial phase in a few years, thus disclosing the potential of all marine areas with deep waters close to the coast, including the Mediterranean basin. One of the main challenges for floating offshore wind deployment in this area is the achievement of its economic feasibility. The offshore wind resource in the Mediterranean is generally lower than the one in the North Sea and in Oceans and the cost of offshore wind farms, especially with floating technology, is higher than the present offshore wind farm installations also because this industrial sector has not yet started in this area. However, in the Mediterranean area, the potential of offshore wind to contribute to the decarbonization pathway and reduce the dependence on imported fuel supply is substantial. Numerous studies, examined in this article, have already performed a technical‐economic assessment of offshore wind farms in different countries and geographical areas within the basin. A significant number of offshore wind projects are already in different stages of development, confirming the industrial interest and readiness of the Mediterranean offshore wind energy sector. The article provides a comprehensive review of various factors influencing the future deployment of offshore wind in the Mediterranean. It covers a range of topics including technology advancements, resource assessment, wind energy potential, ongoing projects, costs, and economic aspects. Additionally, it discusses environmental sustainability, regulatory frameworks, supply chain logistics, and system integration. The updated review presented in this article could assist decision‐makers and stakeholders in gaining a better understanding of the characteristics of this promising sector and accelerating its development.This article is categorized under: Sustainable Energy > Wind Energy

Wake Effects in Lower Carbon Future Scenarios

In August 2022, the U.S. Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which intended to accelerate U.S. decarbonization, clean energy manufacturing, and deployment of new power and end-use technologies. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has examined possible scenarios for growth by 2050 resulting from the IRA and other emissions reduction drivers and defined several possible scenarios for large-scale wind deployment. These scenarios incorporate large clusters of turbines operating as wind farms grouped around existing or likely transmission lines which will result in wind farm wakes. Using a numerical weather prediction (NWP) model, we assess these wake effects in a domain in the U. S. Southern Great Plains for a representative year with four scenarios in order to validate the simulations, estimate the internal wake impact, and quantify the cluster wake effect. Herein, we present a validation of the ”no wind farm” scenario and quantify the internal waking effect for the ”ONE” wind farm scenario. Future work will use the “MID” scenario (more than 8000 turbines) and the “HI” scenario (more than 16,000 turbines) to quantify the effect of cluster wakes or inter-farm wakes on power production.

Regional disparities in health and employment outcomes of China’s transition to a low-carbon electricity system

Understanding the costs and the spatial distribution of health and employment outcomes of low-carbon electricity pathways is critical to enable an equitable transition. We integrate an electricity system planning model (GridPath), a health impact model (InMAP), and a multiregional input–output model to quantify China’s provincial-level impacts of electricity system decarbonization on costs, health outcomes, employment, and labor compensation. We find that even without specific CO2 constraints, declining renewable energy and storage costs enable a 26% decline in CO2 emissions in 2040 compared to 2020 under the Reference scenario. Compared to the Reference scenario, pursuing 2 °C and 1.5 °C compatible carbon emission targets (85% and 99% decrease in 2040 CO2 emissions relative to 2020 levels, respectively) reduces air pollution-related premature deaths from electricity generation over 2020–2040 by 51% and 63%, but substantially increases annual average costs per unit of electricity demand in 2040 (21% and 39%, respectively). While the 2 °C pathway leads to a 3% increase in electricity sector-related net labor compensation, the 1.5 °C pathway results in a 19% increase in labor compensation driven by greater renewable energy deployment. Although disparities in health impacts across provinces narrow as fossil fuels phase out, disparities in labor compensation widen with wealthier East Coast provinces gaining the most in labor compensation because of materials and equipment manufacturing, and offshore wind deployment.

Critical material requirements and recycling opportunities for US wind and solar power generation

AbstractThe deployment of renewable energy generation technologies, driven primarily by concerns over catastrophic climate change, is expected to increase rapidly in the United States. Rapid increases in the deployment of wind and solar energy will translate to increases in critical material requirements, causing concern that demand could outstrip supply, leading to mineral price volatility and potentially slowing the energy transition. This study presents a detailed demand‐side model for wind and solar in the United States using dynamic material flow analysis to calculate the requirements for 15 elements: Cr, Zn, Ga, Se, Mo, Ag, Cd, In, Sn, Te, Pr, Nd, Tb, Dy, and Pb. Results show that transitioning to a completely decarbonized US energy system by 2050 could require a five‐to‐sevenfold increase in critical material flow‐into‐use compared with business as usual (BAU), with some materials requiring much larger increases. Rare earth elements (REEs) could require 60–300 times greater material flows into the US power sector in 2050 than in 2021, representing 13%–49% of the total global REE supply. Te requirements for reaching net zero by 2050 could exceed current supply, posing challenges for widespread deployment of cadmium‐telluride solar. We also investigate several strategies for reducing material requirements, including closed‐loop recycling, material intensity reduction, and changing market share of subtechnologies (e.g., using crystalline silicon solar panels instead of cadmium telluride). Although these strategies can significantly reduce critical material requirements by up to 40% on average, aggressive decarbonization will still require a substantial amount of critical material.

Stakeholder insights into embedding marine net gain for offshore wind farm planning and delivery

The rapid expansion of offshore wind farms plays a key role in meeting global Net Zero targets by 2050 and if delivered sustainably could address the dual challenges of climate change and biodiversity loss. Many countries are embracing ambitious approaches to environmental impact reduction by implementing concepts such as Biodiversity Net Gain, Nature Positive and No Net Loss. Such policies are now recognized in European and UK legislation, although generally only applicable to terrestrial activities. For the marine realm, there is little consensus on how Marine Net Gain can provide optimal environmental and societal outcomes from marine activities such as offshore wind farm construction, operation and decommissioning. This study sought to clarify the key issues that need to be addressed for effective implementation of Marine Net Gain. Following recruitment through a stakeholder mapping exercise, in-workshop and follow-up questionnaires sought to elicit expert opinions from multi-sector UK offshore wind farm stakeholders on a range of aspects of Marine Net Gain policy formulation and delivery. Over 80 % of participants indicated that certain external inputs, including information for climate change adaptation options and habitat mapping data, were important to enable delivery of Marine Net Gain. The most important ecosystem services to include within Net Gain measures were perceived as those relating to fisheries (mean 4.50, SD 0.51), maintaining nursery habitats (mean 4.41, SD 0.59), and climate regulation (mean 4.20, SD 1.). Stakeholders felt the most important Net Gain actions for environmental restoration/enhancement for future offshore wind deployment were shellfish/mussel bed (ave rank score 4.06) and invertebrate habitat restoration (ave rank score 4.60), and actions supporting plankton communities (ave rank score 4.67). Stakeholders agreed (83 %) that Net Gain actions should be considered at the decommissioning stage, and the preferred decommissioning option was the complete removal or abandonment of all structures. Stakeholders felt that strategic Net Gain assessments should prioritize fishing pressures (dredging: mean 4.27, SD 1.03; line and net: mean 4.21, SD 0.89) and those arising from physical structures (mean 4.0, SD 0.85). Aquaculture farming was deemed most feasible to co-exist with fixed offshore wind farms (means 3.93–4.19), while floating wind farms were felt to be more co-locatable with fishing practices (means 3.94–4.06) and carbon capture storage devices (mean 3.87) compared to fixed structures. Recommendations are suggested for future policy development and scientific research in relation to the application of Marine Net Gain assessment for offshore wind farm projects.

Offshore wind power in the Asia-Pacific: Expert elicitation on costs and policies

Offshore wind power is an important technology option for decarbonising the electricity sector. An emerging region for the deployment of offshore wind is the Asia-Pacific. We conduct an expert elicitation of future cost expectations for offshore wind in the Asia-Pacific region, covering fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind technologies. We also examine views on policies that support the more rapid cost reductions for fixed bottom and floating offshore wind. We find expectations of decreases in the average levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) to USD72/MWh in 2040 (fixed-bottom) and USD81/MWh in 2050 (floating). The largest factors contributing to falling technology costs are identified as installation costs and capital costs for turbines and foundations, along with increased capacity factors. The creation of policy targets along with improved regulatory streamlining are identified as important policy measures that governments could implement to support technology cost reductions. We also find that preferred policy mixes depend on the level of technological maturity. Competitive tendering processes are identified as important for both technologies, but floating offshore wind auctions should be introduced after technology costs have fallen. In the near term, other policies are identified as more important for floating offshore technologies.

Uncertainty analysis identifies drivers of offshore wind deployment

Uncertainty analysis identifies drivers of offshore wind deployment

Overview of the potential of floating wind in Europe based on met-ocean data derived from the ERA5-dataset

This paper provides an overview of the potential of floating wind in Europe. Wind and wave data from the ERA5 dataset as well as bathymetry data are analysed to identify regions suitable for floating wind deployment. The most promising areas are quantified according to different characteristics (wind resource, bathymetry, distance to the coast). The wind resource is quantified in terms of averaged wind velocity and wind availability at 100 m height above sea level. The results show the great potential of Ireland, Iceland, Norway and the United Kingdom. Indeed, a large part of the seas of these countries is located in water depths between 60 and 1000 meters and has a very high wind resource despite stronger wave conditions than in other countries. In addition, Spain, France, Sweden, Finland and Greece all exhibit good potential.

Why municipalities reject wind power: A study on municipal acceptance and rejection of wind power instalments in Sweden

This article explores municipal acceptance of wind power in Sweden and draws conclusions on the basis of semi-structured interviews with municipal decision-makers, together with analysis of documents and statistical data. In line with previous research, it demonstrates that wind power opposition is more complex than just a NIMBY effect. The attitudes of local residents influence municipal decision-makers, but may also act to augment and mobilize opposition. Perceptions of distributional injustice, generated by the lack of local economic benefits and the geographically uneven deployment of wind and hydropower, are also relevant in explaining community and municipal acceptance. Moreover, municipal acceptance depends on national political discourses, economic aspects, institutional settings, regulations and sociopolitical factors. To overcome acceptance barriers, the article argues for the need of some kind of formal compensation schemes, directed to both local communities and the municipality. The authority of the municipality to levy taxes on wind power could potentially rectify perceptions of energy injustice between different geographic regions, stimulate higher approval rates, and motivate municipalities to assume a role as an intermediary, accommodating different, and sometimes conflicting, local, national, and global interests.

Techno-economic implications of time-flexible operation for iron-based chemical looping combustion cycle with energy storage capability

The renewable energy is predicted to be further expanded to reduce the fossil energy and associated CO2 emissions with the aim of achieving climate neutrality. One of the main issues in large-scale deployment of wind and solar power applications is the time-variability of these renewable sources. To tackle this issue, the modern energy conversion systems must have an inherent time-flexibility. The chemical looping combustion (CLC) is an innovative energy-efficient system with inherent CO2 capture. This work evaluates a time-flexible natural gas-based CLC system for efficient power generation (250 MW net electricity production) and very high decarbonization rate (>99%). The iron-based CLC cycle is fitted with Oxygen Carrier (OC) storage facilities (for both oxidized and reduced stages) to enhance the thermo-chemical energy storage capability. Two illustrative process layouts were assessed: one conventional base-load system and one with energy storage capability for flexible time operation. Various relevant process engineering tools were employed: process modelling and simulation, validation, energy integration, techno-economic assessment. The integrated evaluation of main techno-economic indicators shows that the time-flexible design has improved performance indicators such as lower specific investment costs (down to about 3%), reduced operational and power generation costs (down to about 2%) as well as lower CO2 capture costs (down to 8%).

Evaluating the competitiveness and uncertainty of offshore wind-to-hydrogen production: A case study of Poland

Offshore wind is currently the most rapidly growing renewable energy source on a global scale. The increasing deployment and high economic potential of offshore wind have prompted considerable interest in its use for hydrogen production. In this context, this study develops a Monte Carlo-based framework for assessing the competitiveness of offshore wind-to-hydrogen production. The framework is designed to evaluate the location-based variability of the levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) and explore the uncertainty that exists in the long-term planning of hydrogen production installations. The case study of Poland is presented to demonstrate the application of the framework. This work provides a detailed analysis of the LCOH considering the geographical coordinates of 23 planned offshore wind farms in the Baltic Sea. Moreover, it presents a comparative analysis of hydrogen production costs from offshore and onshore wind parks in 2030 and 2050. The results show that hydrogen from offshore wind could range between €3.60 to €3.71/kg H2 in 2030, whereas in 2050, it may range from €2.05 to €2.15/kg H2.

The transmission ramifications of social and environmental siting considerations on wind energy deployment

Increasing the capacity of wind power is critical to achieving climate goals, however its continued deployment faces environmental and social siting challenges. For example, the United States government is increasingly emphasizing the importance of a just energy transition by considering the social impacts of energy and environmental justice (EEJ). In this study, we investigate the impact of considering available EEJ metrics and environmental impacts into siting wind power and transmission by applying SimWINDPRO. SimWINDPRO is an infrastructure optimization tool that can site wind energy technologies and transmission by concurrently considering wind resource potential, transmission costs, EEJ, and environmental impacts. We demonstrate the impacts of considering EEJ and environmental factors in the context of Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) western region, which includes some of the best wind energy potential in the United States. We show that prioritizing EEJ and environmental considerations in wind deployment can result in exponentially more transmission deployment for the same amount of wind power delivered, and results in selecting different wind farm sites. Our results also show that, depending on how it is considered, it is possible that constraining sites based on EEJ and environmental factors can reduce the available capacity of wind energy enough that energy transition capacity targets cannot be met.

Evaluating the German onshore wind auction programme: An analysis based on individual bids

Auctions are a highly demanded policy instrument for the promotion of renewable energy sources. Their flexible structure makes them adaptable to country-specific conditions and needs. However, their success depends greatly on how those needs are operationalised in the design elements. Disaggregating data from the German onshore wind auction programme into individual projects, we evaluated the contribution of auctions to the achievement of their primary (deployment at competitive prices) and secondary (diversity) objectives and have highlighted design elements that affect the policy's success or failure. We have shown that, in the German case, the auction scheme is unable to promote wind deployment at competitive prices, and that the design elements used to promote the secondary objectives not only fall short at achieving their intended goals, but create incentives for large actors to game the system.