“In a fully renewable world, if we want to avoid burning fossil fuels, we will need to develop nuclear or hydrogen fuels, or carbon recovery, or add more renewable energy production capacity,” he said.
During times of low rainfall, water managers keep fresh water flowing through taps by digging municipal reservoirs or underground aquifers. There is no equivalent backup for solar and wind systems. Batteries used to store excess solar and wind energy on unusually bright and gusty days can only be charged for a few hours, a few days at most. Lal said the hydroelectric plants provided a potential buffer, but not enough time to get the system through prolonged droughts with intermittent sunlight and wind.
“We’re not going to solve this problem by building a bigger network,” he said. “Grid operators are aiming for 99.99 percent reliability, and water managers are aiming for 90 percent reliability. You can see how challenging this is going to be for the energy industry, with seasonal and The value of long-term forecasts.”
In the next phase of the study, Lall will work with Columbia University engineering professors Vijay Modi and Bolun Xu to see if they can predict energy droughts and “floods” when the system generates excess renewable energy. With these forecasts, they hope to predict the rise and fall of energy prices.
This story was originally written by columbia news.
