scholarly journals The Potential of Variable Renewable Energy Sources in Mexico: A Temporally-Evaluated and Geospatially-Constrained Techno-Economical Assessment

Author(s):  
Edgar Ubaldo Pena Sanchez ◽  
Severin David Ryberg ◽  
Heidi Ursula Heinrichs ◽  
Detlef Stolten ◽  
Martin Robinius

Due to the increasing global importance of decarbonizing human activities, especially the production of electricity, the optimal deployment of renewable energy technologies will play a crucial role in future energy systems. To accomplish this, particular attention must be accorded to the geospatial and temporal distribution of variable renewable energy sources (VRES) such as wind and solar radiation in order to match electricity supply and demand. This study presents a techno-economical assessment of four energy technologies in the hypothetical context of Mexico in 2050, namely: onshore and offshore wind turbines, and open-field and rooftop photovoltaics. A land eligibility analysis incorporating physical, environmental, and socio-political eligibility constraints and individual turbine and photovoltaic park simulations, drawing on 39 years of climate data, is performed for individual sites across the country in an effort to determine the installable potential and the associated levelized costs of electricity. The results reveal that up to 54 PWh of renewable electricity can be produced as a cost of less than 70 EUR/MWh. Around 91% (49 PWh) of this would originate from 23 TW of open-field photovoltaic parks that could occupy up to 578,000 km2 of eligible land across the country. The remaining 9% (4.8 PWh) could be produced by 1.9 TW of onshore wind installations allocated to approximately 68,500 km2 of eligible land that is almost fully adjacent to three mountainous zones. The combination of rooftop photovoltaic and offshore wind turbines account for a very small share of less than 0.03% of the overall techno-economical potential.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (18) ◽  
pp. 5779
Author(s):  
Edgar Ubaldo Peña Sánchez ◽  
Severin David Ryberg ◽  
Heidi Ursula Heinrichs ◽  
Detlef Stolten ◽  
Martin Robinius

Due to the increasing global importance of decarbonizing human activities, especially the production of electricity, the optimal deployment of renewable energy technologies will play a crucial role in future energy systems. To accomplish this, particular attention must be accorded to the geospatial and temporal distribution of variable renewable energy sources (VRES), such as wind and solar radiation, in order to match electricity supply and demand. This study presents a techno-economical assessment of four energy technologies in the hypothetical context of Mexico in 2050, namely: onshore and offshore wind turbines and open-field and rooftop photovoltaics. A land eligibility analysis incorporating physical, environmental, and sociopolitical eligibility constraints and individual turbine and photovoltaic park simulations, drawing on 39 years of climate data, is performed for individual sites across the country in an effort to determine the installable potential and the associated levelized costs of electricity. The results reveal that up to 54 PWh of renewable electricity can be produced at a levelized cost of electricity of less than 70 EUR·MWh−1. Around 91% (49 PWh) of this electricity would originate from 23 TW of open-field photovoltaic parks that could occupy up to 578,000 km2 of eligible land across the country. The remaining 9% (4.8 PWh) could be produced by 1.9 TW of onshore wind installations allocated to approximately 68,500 km2 of eligible land that is almost fully adjacent to three mountainous zones. The combination of rooftop photovoltaic and offshore wind turbines accounts for a very small share of less than 0.03% of the overall techno-economical potential.


Sci ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Moriarty ◽  
Damon Honnery

Because of the near-term risk of extreme weather events and other adverse consequences from climate change, and, at least in the longer term, global fossil fuel depletion, there is world-wide interest in shifting to noncarbon energy sources, especially renewable energy (RE). Because of possible limitations on conventional renewable energy sources, researchers have looked for ways of overcoming these shortcomings by introducing radically new energy technologies. The largest RE source today is bioenergy, while solar energy and wind energy are regarded as having the largest technical potential. This paper reviews the literature on proposed new technologies for each of these three RE sources: microalgae for bioenergy, photolysis and airborne wind turbines. The main finding is that their proponents have underestimated the difficulties facing their introduction on a very large scale.


2018 ◽  
Vol 64 ◽  
pp. 06003
Author(s):  
Rijkure Astrida

Renewable energy sources (wind energy, solar energy, hydroelectricity, ocean energy, geothermal energy, biomass and biofuels) are alternatives to fossil fuel that help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, diversify energy supplies and reduce dependency on markets of unsustainable and volatile fossil fuels, particularly oil and gas. Wind energy is one of the renewable energy sources and is considered to be self-renewable as it is the result of the Sun’s activity. Using wind energy is a rapidly developing industry today, and more and more wind turbines are installed worldwide every year, land-based wind turbines being more widespread than offshore ones. In Latvia, spread of land-based wind parks is hampered by unsettled land ownership rights, while the deployment of wind parks in the sea is a new field for all Baltic States. The neighbouring countries Estonia and Lithuania have developed their own projects for offshore wind parks, therefore the topicality of the development of wind farms in the territorial waters of Latvia has also increased. Experts have proposed best options and their locations. When assessing possibilities for development of wind parks and their capacity, the following economic factors were evaluated: construction and connection costs, potential operational costs and energy prices. The aim of this study is to develop the methodology for calculating the area of a potential wind park by considering the safety distance to shipping routes and height of the wind turbines, as well as for calculating the potential capacity of a wind park.


2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilija Batas-Bjelic ◽  
Ivan Skokljev ◽  
Tomislav Puksec ◽  
Goran Krajacic ◽  
Neven Duic

With the integration of more variable renewable energy, the need for storage is growing. Rather than utility scale storage, smart grid technology (not restricted, but mainly involving bidirectional communication between the supply and demand side and dynamic pricing) enables flexible consumption to be a virtual storage alternative for moderation of the production of variable renewable energy sources on the micro grid level. A study, motivated with energy loss allocation, electric demand and the legal framework that is characteristic for the average Serbian household, was performed using the HOMER software tool. The decision to shift or build deferrable load rather than sell on site generated energy from variable renewable energy sources to the grid was based on the consumer's net present cost minimization. Based on decreasing the grid sales hours of the micro grid system to the transmission grid from 3,498 to 2,009, it was shown that the demand response could be included in long-term planning of the virtual storage option. Demand responsive actions that could be interpreted as storage investment costs were quantified to 1?2 per year in this article.


Sci ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Patrick Moriarty ◽  
Damon Honnery

Because of the near-term risk of extreme weather events and other adverse consequences from climate change and, at least in the longer term, global fossil fuel depletion, there is worldwide interest in shifting to noncarbon energy sources, especially renewable energy (RE). Because of possible limitations on conventional renewable energy sources, researchers have looked for ways of overcoming these shortcomings by introducing radically new energy technologies. The largest RE source today is bioenergy, while solar energy and wind energy are regarded as having by far the largest technical potential. This paper reviews the literature on proposed new technologies for each of these three RE sources: microalgae for bioenergy, photolysis and airborne wind turbines. The main finding is that their proponents have often underestimated the difficulties they face and the time taken for their introduction on a very large scale.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indre Siksnelyte-Butkiene ◽  
Edmundas Kazimieras Zavadskas ◽  
Dalia Streimikiene

Different power generation technologies have different advantages and disadvantages. However, if compared to traditional energy sources, renewable energy sources provide a possibility to solve the climate change and economic decarbonization issues that are so relevant today. Therefore, the analysis and evaluation of renewable energy technologies has been receiving increasing attention in the politics of different countries and the scientific literature. The household sector consumes almost one third of all energy produced, thus studies on the evaluation of renewable energy production technologies in households are very important. This article reviews the scientific literature that have used multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods as a key tool to evaluate renewable energy technologies in households. The findings of the conducted research are categorized according to the objectives pursued and the criteria on which the evaluation was based are discussed. The article also provides an overview and in-depth analysis of MCDM methods and distinguishes the main advantages and disadvantages of using them to evaluate technologies in households.


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