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

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.

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.


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.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 4768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra G. Papadopoulou ◽  
George Vasileiou ◽  
Alexandros Flamos

Raising the penetration of renewable energy sources constitutes one of the main pillars of contemporary decarbonization strategies. Within this context, further progress is required towards the optimal exploitation of their potential, especially in terms of dispatchability, where the role of storage is considered vital. Although current literature delves into either storage per se or the integration of storage solutions in single renewable technologies, the comparative advantages of each technology remain underexplored. However, high-penetration solutions of renewable energy sources (RES) are expected to combine different technological options. Therefore, the conditions under which each technology outperforms their counterparts need to be thoroughly investigated, especially in cases where storage components are included. This paper aims to deal with this gap, by means of assessing the combination of three competing technologies, namely concentrated solar power (CSP), photovoltaics (PV) and offshore wind, with the storage component. The techno-economic assessment is based on two metrics; the levelized cost of electricity and the net present value. Considering the competition between the technologies and the impact storage may have, the paper’s scope lies in investigating the circumstances, under which CSP could have an advantage against comparable technologies. Overall, PVs combined with storage prevail, as the most feasible technological option in the examined storage scenarios—with an LCOE lower than 0.11 €/kWh. CSP LCOE ranged between 0.1327–0.1513 €/kWh for high capacity factors and investment costs, thus larger storage components. Offshore wind—with a lower storage component—had an LCOE of 0.1402 €/kWh. Thus, CSP presents the potential to outperform offshore wind in cases where the latter technology is coupled with high storage requirements. CSP can be viewed as one of the options that could support European Union (EU) decarbonization scenarios. As such, an appropriate market design that takes into consideration and values CSP characteristics, namely dispatchability, is needed at the EU level.


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.


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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