Alternatives No More: Wind and Solar Power Are Mainstays of a Clean, Reliable, Affordable Grid

Author

Milligan, Michael ; Frew, Bethany ; Kirby, Brendan ; Schuerger, Matt ; Clark, Kara ; Lew, Debbie ; Denholm, Paul ; Zavadil, Bob ; O´Malley, Mark ; Tsuchida, Bruce

Author_Institution

NREL, Golden, CO, USA

Volume

13

Issue

6

fYear

2015

Firstpage

78

Lastpage

87

Abstract

Wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, no longer alternative energy sources, have grown rapidly in the United States and worldwide during the last decade. This rapid growth is due to significantly improved technology (power electronics, controls, and physical attributes such as tower heights and blades), plummeting costs, and vast advancements in understanding how to plan and operate reliable regional power systems that have high penetrations of variable renewable resources. Wind and PVs have become mainstays of a clean, reliable, affordable electric grid.

Keywords

poles and towers; power generation reliability; power grids; solar power; wind power; United States; affordable grid; blades; clean grid; plummeting costs; power electronics; reliable grid; reliable regional power systems; solar power; tower heights; variable renewable resources; vast advancements; wind power; Automatic generation control; Photovoltaics; Power system stability; Renewable energy sources; Solar energy; Wind power generation; Wind turbines;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Power and Energy Magazine, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1540-7977

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/MPE.2015.2462311

Filename

7299793