Freeman Sergio, Agar Ertan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Energy Engineering Graduate Program, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, 01854, USA.
Heliyon. 2024 Mar 9;10(6):e27652. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e27652. eCollection 2024 Mar 30.
In this study, the potential of wind and solar power to reliably meet the electricity demand of New England is evaluated, as well as the role of energy storage in improving the reliability of the region's renewable energy system. Using 44 years of hourly weather data from 1980 to 2023 obtained from the NASA MERRA-2 reanalysis product, the variability of these renewable resources and their impact on the region's electricity supply and demand is investigated. With varying mixes of wind and solar resources and sufficient resources capacity to generate electricity equal to annual demand, we find that a wind-dominant system can meet approximately 73% of the region's hourly electricity demand, whereas a solar-dominant system can only meet about 69%. However, incorporating 12 h of energy storage enhances the overall reliability of a wind-dominant system to 86%. In comparison, incorporating the same amount of energy storage in a solar-dominant system results in an overall reliability of approximately 87%. Ultimately, our analysis shows that achieving 100% reliability in meeting the annual electricity demand of New England requires addressing the mismatch between electricity demand and resource availability in terms of both location and time. This can be achieved through the integration of significant amounts of energy storage and/or wind and solar resources installations capable of generating electricity that exceeds peak demand by at least 3 times.
在本研究中，评估了风能和太阳能可靠满足新英格兰地区电力需求的潜力，以及储能在提高该地区可再生能源系统可靠性方面的作用。利用从美国国家航空航天局（NASA）MERRA - 2再分析产品中获取的1980年至2023年44年的每小时天气数据，研究了这些可再生资源的变异性及其对该地区电力供需的影响。在风能和太阳能资源组合不同且有足够资源容量发电以满足年度需求的情况下，我们发现以风能为主的系统可满足该地区约73%的每小时电力需求，而以太阳能为主的系统只能满足约69%。然而，加入12小时的储能可将以风能为主的系统的整体可靠性提高到86%。相比之下，在以太阳能为主的系统中加入相同数量的储能，整体可靠性约为87%。最终，我们的分析表明，要在满足新英格兰地区年度电力需求方面实现100%的可靠性，需要在位置和时间方面解决电力需求与资源可用性之间的不匹配问题。这可以通过整合大量储能和/或能够发电超过峰值需求至少3倍的风能和太阳能资源装置来实现。
