Planning for net-zero with renewable energy sources and DERs

As pressure intensifies to create a cleaner, greener energy landscape, utilities face the challenge of modernizing their aging infrastructures. This requires integrating renewable energy sources from both consumers and producers while simultaneously maintaining grid safety and resilience.

Download our white paper Planning for net-zero utilities: Integrating renewable energy sources and DERs to learn

• External factors driving utilities towards rapid but strategically planned integration of renewable energy sources
• How utility-scale renewables and DERs both contribute to achievement of net-zero goals
• Proven tactics for ensuring more efficient interconnection of renewable energy sources to the grid and der management
• And more

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How utility-scale renewables contribute to net-zero goals

Utility-scale renewable energy sources appear to be ideally positioned to drive progress towards net-zero goals.

The first clear advantage is economy of scale: the levelized cost of utility-scale solar panels, for example, is up to seven times lower per MWh than that of rooftop solar
PVs. Utility-scale resources are also far easier for grid operators to monitor and control than distributed energy resources owned by consumers, businesses, or independent producers.

Challenges

The fundamental challenge in integrating utility-scale renewables is that renewable energy plants are typically not dispatchable—they cannot generate power 100 percent of the time when called upon. Weather-dependent sources such as wind and sunlight are inherently variable due to day/night cycles and changes in
meteorological conditions.

Solutions

Utilities are developing an array of solutions for addressing the challenges surrounding renewable energy sources, including the following:

• Increasing investment in energy storage
• Installing new transmission lines from high-production to low-production areas, e.g. from desert to city
• Diversifying their renewable energy portfolios among various sources (wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric)
• Incentivizing generator flexibility, as California has done by offering a flexible ramping product that rewards generators for the ability to ramp up and ramp down
  quickly
• Leveraging AI and machine learning to improve forecasting of power generation from renewable sources

Regarding solar power specifically, the viability of solar panel farms is limited in states where the climate is cloudy, rainy, or foggy.
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