AUTHOR=Fekete Balázs M. , Bacskó Mihály , Zhang Jiaqi , Chen Mengye 

TITLE=Storage requirements to mitigate intermittent renewable energy sources: analysis for the US Northeast

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Environmental Science

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/environmental-science/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2023.1076830

DOI=10.3389/fenvs.2023.1076830

ISSN=2296-665X

ABSTRACT=Moving away from fossil fuels is essential for a sustainable future. Carrying out this transition without reversing the improvements in quality of life is the ultimate challenge. While minimizing the anticipated impacts of climate change is the primary driver of decarbonization, the inevitable exhaustion of fossil energy sources should provide just as strong or perhaps even stronger incentives. The vast majority of publications outlining the pathways to “net-zero carbon emission” fall short from leading to a truly “fossil fuel free” future without falling back to some level of dependence on fossil fuels with carbon capture and sequestration.
The main obstacle to wider adoption of renewable energy resources is their inherent intermittency. Solar and wind are by far the most abundant renewable energy sources that are expected to take the lion share in transitioning to a sustainable future. Intermittency arises at multiple levels. The most recognized are the short term (minute-by-minute, hourly or diurnal variations) that should be the easiest to address. Less frequently realized are the seasonal and inter-annual variabilities. Seasonality poses far greater challenges than minute-by-minute or hourly variations because they lead to the absence of energy resources for prolonged periods of times.
Our interest is the feasibility of a future where all energy (100%) comes from renewable sources leaving no room for fossil fuels. We carry out rudimentary statistical analyses of solar radiation and wind speed time series records to quantify the degree of their intermittencies seasonally and inter-annually. We employ a simple but robust accounting of the shortfalls when the supplies do not meet demand via a modified cumulative supply/deficit analysis that incorporates energy losses arising from transporting excess energy to storage and retrieving it as needed.
The presented analysis provides guidance for choosing between the installation of excess capacity or the deployment of energy storage to guarantee reliable energy services under the assumption that the energy system is powered exclusively by renewable energy sources. The paper examines the seasonal and inter-annual variability of hydropower and biofuel resources to estimate their potential to mitigate the intermittencies of solar and wind resources.