The North American Renewable Integration Study (NARIS): A U.S. Perspective

Technical Report · Tue Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1804701· OSTI ID:1804701

Brinkman, Gregory ^[1]; Bain, Dominique ^[1]; Buster, Grant ^[1]; Draxl, Caroline ^[1]; Das, Paritosh ^[1]; Ho, Jonathan ^[1]; Ibanez, Eduardo ^[2]; Jones, Ryan ^[3]; Koebrich, Sam ^[1]; Murphy, Sinnott ^[1]; Narwade, Vinayak ^[1]; Novacheck, Joshua ^[1]; Purkayastha, Avi ^[1]; Rossol, Michael ^[1]; Sigrin, Ben ^[1]; Stephen, Gord ^[1]; Zhang, Jiazi ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. GE Energy, Atlanta, GA (United States)
3. Evolved Energy Research, San Francisco, CA (United States)

The North American electric power system is undergoing significant change, with renewable resources now contributing more generation than ever before. This transformation is poised to continue given decreasing technology costs and ambitious decarbonization goals at the federal, state, local, corporate, and consumer levels. The North American Renewable Integration Study (NARIS) aims to inform grid planners, utilities, industry, policymakers, and other stakeholders about challenges and opportunities for continental system integration of large amounts of wind, solar, and hydropower to support a low-carbon future grid. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a detailed, continent-wide analysis with planning scenarios of transmission, generation, and demand to reach 80%–92% carbon reductions (from 2005) for the Canadian electric power system, and up to 80% reductions continent-wide. We used a suite of models to study future scenarios and gain insights, including potential impacts on costs, emissions, resource adequacy, and the specific technologies that help enable the transition to a low-carbon grid. Our analysis had a particular focus on the potential role of cooperation among the three North American countries and between regions within each country, and how transmission can support sharing of supply and demand diversity. The NARIS project began in 2016. This report describes a U.S. perspective in coordination with the U.S. Department of Energy, and a companion report describes a Canadian perspective in coordination with the Natural Resources Canada. NARIS was an extension of a previous body of work, including the Western Wind and Solar Integration Study, the Eastern Renewable Generation Integration Study, Interconnections Seam Study, and the Pan Canadian Wind Integration Study. NARIS analyzed the entire continent in detail while studying higher renewable generation than previous studies. The scenarios in NARIS were informed by the goals in the Mid-Century Strategies for the Paris Agreement in each country.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1804701
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-6A20-79224; MainId:33450; UUID:0b7cd159-a2c2-4abf-ac1c-e3b61620e758; MainAdminID:25658
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
17 WIND ENERGY
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
Canada
NARIS
North American Renewable Integration Study
continental
grid integration
macrogrid
transmission