Research

Methodology to elaborate a roadmap for a 100% renewable energy mix in isolated grids using GRIDSOL's SRH-M

In AIP Conference Proceedings, 2020

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Abstract

A fully renewable electricity sector is in our future but finding the path that minimizes the cost of this transition is no easy task. The GRIDSOL project has developed a methodology to prepare Sustainable Roadmaps of Energy Generation Systems (SRoEGS) [3], aimed at determining the best way for a region to reach a highly renewable generation mix, while taking into account a comprehensive set of conditions such as: security of supply, availability of land, use of water, etc. This methodology can incorporate in the decision-making process a wide range of additional inputs set by the stakeholders, assessing environmental, social and economic impacts of the development plans to ensure their sustainability from a holistic point of view. The results of a case study show that simply adding cheap renewable generation to the mix is good enough if the RE content target is low (up to 25%) but, if a truly significant RE fraction (over 60%) is desired, tailoring the deployment to the available resources and, most importantly, determining the storage requirements at the system level (i.e. developing larger, shared standalone BES facilities instead of including smaller ones in individual plants) helps keeping the costs to a minimum.