scholarly journals California's Vision for Reaching Zero-Carbon Emissions

Author(s):  
Pedro Andres Sanchez Perez ◽  
Sarah Kurtz

<div>In "The 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018" the California legislature set a target of 100\% of California's electricity generated from renewable and zero-carbon sources by 2045. </div><div>The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and other state entities now have the task of planning to meet that target. </div><div>The California Energy Commission (CEC) has sponsored multiple studies and sought public input on the pathways that they are exploring. </div><div>A key result of that planning process is a Reference System Portfolio (RSP) based on existing and planned electricity generating capabilities, and modeled grid build out to meet the planned targets by 2045 at the lowest cost. </div><div>Although this RSP has been discussed by the CEC in a public forum, to our knowledge, it has not been presented to the photovoltaic community.</div><div>Here we document the CEC’s current RSP, with emphasis on understanding their expectations for build out of solar as well as the associated need for storage and curtailment.</div>

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Andres Sanchez Perez ◽  
Sarah Kurtz

<div>In "The 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018" the California legislature set a target of 100\% of California's electricity generated from renewable and zero-carbon sources by 2045. </div><div>The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and other state entities now have the task of planning to meet that target. </div><div>The California Energy Commission (CEC) has sponsored multiple studies and sought public input on the pathways that they are exploring. </div><div>A key result of that planning process is a Reference System Portfolio (RSP) based on existing and planned electricity generating capabilities, and modeled grid build out to meet the planned targets by 2045 at the lowest cost. </div><div>Although this RSP has been discussed by the CEC in a public forum, to our knowledge, it has not been presented to the photovoltaic community.</div><div>Here we document the CEC’s current RSP, with emphasis on understanding their expectations for build out of solar as well as the associated need for storage and curtailment.</div>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Andres Sanchez Perez

<div>In "The 100 Percent Clean Energy Act of 2018" the California legislature set a target of 100\% of California's electricity generated from renewable and zero-carbon sources by 2045. </div><div>The California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) and other state entities now have the task of planning to meet that target. </div><div>The California Energy Commission (CEC) has sponsored multiple studies and sought public input on the pathways that they are exploring. </div><div>A key result of that planning process is a Reference System Portfolio (RSP) based on existing and planned electricity generating capabilities, and modeled grid build out to meet the planned targets by 2045 at the lowest cost. </div><div>Although this RSP has been discussed by the CEC in a public forum, to our knowledge, it has not been presented to the photovoltaic community.</div><div>Here we document the CEC’s current RSP, with emphasis on understanding their expectations for build out of solar as well as the associated need for storage and curtailment.</div>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
XiangWen Xiong ◽  
Mingzi Wu

<p>This paper presents a novel ecological &amp; energized modules (EEMs) system for transportation and bridge systems. It has a general interest in almost all human living &amp; ecological systems, civil engineering, and infrastructure. As an underlying and fundamental system of zero energy, zero- water-consumption, and zero-carbon with a 100% greening rate and 100% clean energy, high- quality air, and powerful carbon capture system with significant positive spillover for global carbon removal and climate challenges, etc., the EEMs bridge system is easy, fast, efficient, and zero- dependence on the large complex equipment during the construction. It is applied to a wide variety of bridge systems, such as road bridges, footbridges, flyovers, and overpasses. It’s pollution-free, safe, noiseless, and can be used soon after paving, repairing, and re-laying. The EEMs bridge system has unique superiority in ecosystem integrity and connectivity, resulting in available consequences for global biodiversity, local species interactions, ecosystem integrity and connectivity.</p>


Author(s):  
Jitendra Singh Bhadoriya ◽  
Atma Ram Gupta

Abstract In recent times, producing electricity with lower carbon emissions has resulted in strong clean energy incorporation into the distribution network. The technical development of weather-driven renewable distributed generation units, the global approach to reducing pollution emissions, and the potential for independent power producers to engage in distribution network planning (DNP) based on the participation in the increasing share of renewable purchasing obligation (RPO) are some of the essential reasons for including renewable-based distributed generation (RBDG) as an expansion investment. The Grid-Scale Energy Storage System (GSESS) is proposed as a promising solution in the literature to boost the energy storage accompanied by RBDG and also to increase power generation. In this respect, the technological, economic, and environmental evaluation of the expansion of RBDG concerning the RPO is formulated in the objective function. Therefore, a novel approach to modeling the composite DNP problem in the regulated power system is proposed in this paper. The goal is to increase the allocation of PVDG, WTDG, and GSESS in DNP to improve the quicker retirement of the fossil fuel-based power plant to increase total profits for the distribution network operator (DNO), and improve the voltage deviation, reduce carbon emissions over a defined planning period. The increment in RPO and decrement in the power purchase agreement will help DNO to fulfill round-the-clock supply for all classes of consumers. A recently developed new metaheuristic transient search optimization (TSO) based on electrical storage elements’ stimulation behavior is implemented to find the optimal solution for multi-objective function. The balance between the exploration and exploitation capability makes the TSO suitable for the proposed power flow problem with PVDG, WTDG, and GSESS. For this research, the IEEE-33 and IEEE-69 low and medium bus distribution networks are considered under a defined load growth for planning duration with the distinct load demand models’ aggregation. The findings of the results after comparing with well-known optimization techniques DE and PSO confirm the feasibility of the method suggested.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-97
Author(s):  
Melis Aras

The energy transition in Europe requires not only the implementation of technological innovations to reduce carbon emissions but also the decentralised extension of these innovations throughout the continent, as demonstrated by the ‘Clean Energy for All Europeans’ package. However, decentralised energy generation, and specifically electricity generation, as it gives rise to new players and interactions, also requires a review of the energy planning process. In this sense, governance becomes the key concept for understanding the implementation of the energy transition in a territory. This is particularly visible in a cross-border setting, especially considering cross-border cooperation in the development of renewable energy sources (RES) provides the necessary elements to determine the criteria of local regulation between the different levels of governance. In light of the current legal framework in France, this paper presents the institutional framework of the multi-level governance of the RES development planning process. It concludes that it is quite conceivable for the rationales of governance at the local level (decentralisation) and the large-scale operation of a large interconnected network (Europeanisation) to coexist.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Swann ◽  
Francois Hanus ◽  
Olivier Vasart ◽  
Alan Knight

<p>Steel is the most recycled material in the world and a key contributor to the circular economy, but todays primary steelmaking methods result in high embodied carbon. In the face of the climate emergency, designers have been tasked with driving down the upfront emissions of the built environment. Naturally the embodied carbon characteristics of all materials have been put under the microscope and those with high impacts are being demonised, primary steel is one of those. So how does a designer balance the immediate needs of the climate emergency with the future needs of society? When confronted with a material like steel with practically perfect circularity characteristics but high embodied impacts how do designers balance the needs of today with those of tomorrow? What if steel could be made with zero carbon emissions? Coupled with its high potential for re-use and its high recycling rates is steel a friend and ally in the face of the climate emergency rather than a foe?</p>


Author(s):  
Huiqing Wang ◽  
Yixin Hu ◽  
Heran Zheng ◽  
Yuli Shan ◽  
Song Qing ◽  
...  

The rise of global value chains (GCVs) has seen the transfer of carbon emissions embodied in every step of international trade. Building a coordinated, inclusive and green GCV can be an effective and efficient way to achieve carbon emissions mitigation targets for countries that participate highly in GCVs. In this paper, we first describe the energy consumption as well as the territorial and consumption-based carbon emissions of Belarus and its regions from 2010 to 2017. The results show that Belarus has a relatively clean energy structure with 75% of Belarus' energy consumption coming from imported natural gas. The ‘chemical, rubber and plastic products' sector has expanded significantly over the past few years; its territorial-based emissions increased 10-fold from 2011 to 2014, with the ‘food processing' sector displaying the largest increase in consumption-based emissions. An analysis of regional emissions accounts shows that there is significant regional heterogeneity in Belarus with Mogilev, Gomel and Vitebsk having more energy-intensive manufacturing industries. We then analysed the changes in Belarus' international trade as well as its emission impacts. The results show that Belarus has changed from a net carbon exporter in 2011 to a net carbon importer in 2014. Countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, such as Russia, China, Ukraine, Poland and Kazakhstan, are the main trading partners and carbon emission importers/exporters for Belarus. ‘Construction’ and ‘chemical, rubber and plastic products' are two major emission-importing sectors in Belarus, while ‘electricity' and ‘ferrous metals' are the primary emission-exporting sectors. Possible low-carbon development pathways are discussed for Belarus through the perspectives of global supply and the value chain.


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