Estimating the Quantity of Wind and Solar Required To Displace Storage-Induced Emissions

The variable and nondispatchable nature of wind and solar generation has been driving interest in energy storage as an enabling low-carbon technology that can help spur large-scale adoption of renewables. However, prior work has shown that adding energy storage alone for energy arbitrage in electric...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental science & technology 2017-11, Vol.51 (21), p.12988-12997
Main Authors: Hittinger, Eric, Azevedo, Inês M. L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alabama
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide emissions
Clean technology
Electricity
Emissions
Emissions control
Energy storage
Michigan
Montana
Renewable Energy
Renewable resources
Solar energy
Storage facilities
Wind
Wind power
Wind power generation
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Summary:The variable and nondispatchable nature of wind and solar generation has been driving interest in energy storage as an enabling low-carbon technology that can help spur large-scale adoption of renewables. However, prior work has shown that adding energy storage alone for energy arbitrage in electricity systems across the U.S. routinely increases system emissions. While adding wind or solar reduces electricity system emissions, the emissions effect of both renewable generation and energy storage varies by location. In this work, we apply a marginal emissions approach to determine the net system CO2 emissions of colocated or electrically proximate wind/storage and solar/storage facilities across the U.S. and determine the amount of renewable energy required to offset the CO2 emissions resulting from operation of new energy storage. We find that it takes between 0.03 MW (Montana) and 4 MW (Michigan) of wind and between 0.25 MW (Alabama) and 17 MW (Michigan) of solar to offset the emissions from a 25 MW/100 MWh storage device, depending on location and operational mode. Systems with a realistic combination of renewables and storage will result in net emissions reductions compared with a grid without those systems, but the anticipated reductions are lower than a renewable-only addition.
ISSN:0013-936X
1520-5851
DOI:10.1021/acs.est.7b03286