Renewable Electricity Futures Study, Volume 4: Bulk Electric Power Systems: Operations and Transmission Planning

Technical Report · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1046905· OSTI ID:1046905

Milligan, Michael ^[1]; Ela, Erik ^[1]; Hein, Jeff ^[1]; Schneider, Thomas ^[1]; Brinkman, Gregory ^[1]; Denholm, Paul ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

The Renewable Electricity Futures (RE Futures) Study investigated the challenges and impacts of achieving very high renewable electricity generation levels in the contiguous United States by 2050. The analysis focused on the sufficiency of the geographically diverse U.S. renewable resources to meet electricity demand over future decades, the hourly operational characteristics of the U.S. gridwith high levels of variable wind and solar generation, and the potential implications of deploying high levels of renewables in the future. RE Futures focused on technical aspects of high penetration of renewable electricity; it did not focus on how to achieve such a future through policy or other measures. Given the inherent uncertainties involved with analyzing alternative long-term energyfutures as well as the multiple pathways that might be taken to achieve higher levels of renewable electricity supply, RE Futures explored a range of scenarios to investigate and compare the impacts of renewable electricity penetration levels (30%-90%), future technology performance improvements, potential constraints to renewable electricity development, and future electricity demand growthassumptions. RE Futures was led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1046905
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP--6A20-52409-4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
AVAILABILITY
ELECTRICITY
NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
PERFORMANCE
PLANNING
POWER SYSTEMS
RE Futures
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
United States
generation
grid integration
high penetration
high renewable
renewable electricity
scenario analysis