Energy Zones Study: A Comprehensive Web-Based Mapping Tool to Identify and Analyze Clean Energy Zones in the Eastern Interconnection
- Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
This report describes the work conducted in support of the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council (EISPC) Energy Zones Study and the development of the Energy Zones Mapping Tool performed by a team of experts from three National Laboratories. The multi-laboratory effort was led by Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). In June 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory published Funding Opportunity Announcement FOA-0000068, which invited applications for interconnection-level analysis and planning. In December 2009, the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC) and the EISPC were selected as two award recipients for the Eastern Interconnection. Subsequently, in 2010, DOE issued Research Call RC-BM-2010 to DOE’s Federal Laboratories to provide research support and assistance to FOA-0000068 awardees on a variety of key subjects. Argonne was selected as the lead laboratory to provide support to EISPC in developing a methodology and a mapping tool for identifying potential clean energy zones in the Eastern Interconnection. In developing the EISPC Energy Zones Mapping Tool (EZ Mapping Tool), Argonne, NREL, and ORNL closely collaborated with the EISPC Energy Zones Work Group which coordinated the work on the Energy Zones Study. The main product of the Energy Zones Study is the EZ Mapping Tool, which is a web-based decision support system that allows users to locate areas with high suitability for clean power generation in the U.S. portion of the Eastern Interconnection. The mapping tool includes 9 clean (low- or no-carbon) energy resource categories and 29 types of clean energy technologies. The EZ Mapping Tool contains an extensive geographic information system database and allows the user to apply a flexible modeling approach for the identification and analysis of potential energy zones and is publicly available at http://eispctools.anl.gov. In addition to enabling EISPC members and other stakeholders to identify areas with a high concentration of clean energy resources that could provide significant power generation in the future, another objective of the study was to promote open and transparent collaboration among state-level energy planning and regulatory agencies and to foster consistent and coordinated direction for regional and interconnection-level electricity analyses and planning. Funding for the project was provided by DOE’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (DOE/OE) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Page
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1114087
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/TP-6A20-59539; ANL/DIS-13/09
- Resource Relation:
- Related Information: ANL report co-authored by NREL - available electronically from ANL's EISPC Mapping Tool website at http://eispctools.anl.gov/documents
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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