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Title: Water Impacts of High Solar PV Electricity Penetration

Abstract

This analysis provides a detailed national and regional description of the water-related impacts and constraints of high solar electricity penetration scenarios in the U.S. in 2030 and 2050. A modified version of the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model that incorporates water resource availability and costs as a constraint in each of its 134 Balancing Area (BA) regions was utilized to explore national and regional differences in water use impacts and solar deployment locations under different solar energy cost and water availability scenarios (Macknick et al. 2015). Water resource availability and cost data are from recently completed research at Sandia National Laboratories (Tidwell et al. 2013a). Scenarios analyzed include two business-as-usual solar energy cost cases, one with and one without considering available water resources, and four solar energy cost cases that meet the SunShot cost goals (i.e., $1/watt for utility-scale PV systems), with varying levels of water availability restrictions. This analysis provides insight into the role solar energy technologies have in the broader electricity sector under scenarios of water constraints.

Authors:
 [1];  [1]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
OSTI Identifier:
1225894
Report Number(s):
NREL/TP-6A20-63011
DOE Contract Number:  
AC36-08GO28308
Resource Type:
Technical Report
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
14 SOLAR ENERGY; solar power; thermal electric power plants; water dependency

Citation Formats

Macknick, Jordan, and Cohen, Stuart. Water Impacts of High Solar PV Electricity Penetration. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.2172/1225894.
Macknick, Jordan, & Cohen, Stuart. Water Impacts of High Solar PV Electricity Penetration. United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1225894
Macknick, Jordan, and Cohen, Stuart. 2015. "Water Impacts of High Solar PV Electricity Penetration". United States. https://doi.org/10.2172/1225894. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1225894.
@article{osti_1225894,
title = {Water Impacts of High Solar PV Electricity Penetration},
author = {Macknick, Jordan and Cohen, Stuart},
abstractNote = {This analysis provides a detailed national and regional description of the water-related impacts and constraints of high solar electricity penetration scenarios in the U.S. in 2030 and 2050. A modified version of the Regional Energy Deployment System (ReEDS) model that incorporates water resource availability and costs as a constraint in each of its 134 Balancing Area (BA) regions was utilized to explore national and regional differences in water use impacts and solar deployment locations under different solar energy cost and water availability scenarios (Macknick et al. 2015). Water resource availability and cost data are from recently completed research at Sandia National Laboratories (Tidwell et al. 2013a). Scenarios analyzed include two business-as-usual solar energy cost cases, one with and one without considering available water resources, and four solar energy cost cases that meet the SunShot cost goals (i.e., $1/watt for utility-scale PV systems), with varying levels of water availability restrictions. This analysis provides insight into the role solar energy technologies have in the broader electricity sector under scenarios of water constraints.},
doi = {10.2172/1225894},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1225894}, journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}