Path towards 100% renewable energy (JR 81)

Path towards 100% renewable energy (JR 81)

Introduction

We are on the verge of a profound and urgently necessary shift in the way we produce and use energy. This shift will move the world away from the consumption of fossil resources toward cleaner, renew- able forms of power. Renewable Energy (RE) technologies are blowing the whistle on oil dependency and spark economic and social renaissance .The global energy market is constantly evolving. Current market trends show the energy landscape is in transition towards more flexible energy systems with a rapidly increasing share of renewable energy, declining base load generation and wider applications of storage technology. The declining costs of renewables have begun to reduce new investments into coal and other inflexible base load technologies; a transition which will eventually cause renewables to become the new base load. In 2017 itself, 14% of electricity generation worldwide was attributed to wind and solar.

An unprecedented drop in the cost of producing clean energy has occurred in the last couple of years. It is becoming the cheapest source of power for more and more countries. Both solar and wind power have undergone an annual average percentage drop in cost of production in the mid to high teens. These heady declines in cost are likely to continue over the next decade.

Given its increasing affordability, the applications and use cases of renewable energy have broadened. Alongside electricity production, it is providing new solutions for mobility and energy security worldwide

The renewable revolution

There are quite a few positive economic and financial impacts of a 100 % strategy   to reduce their consumption of expensive and volatile fossil energy sources such as diesel and fuel oil, substituting them with local renewable energy resources. This represents direct cost savings for governments and utilities, as many renewable energy technologies are now cheaper than imported fossil resources. in recent years, market trends show a steady decline in the price of renewable energy in the global power system. Investments into new inflexible base load generation are also on the decline and price performance data shows the cost competitiveness of wind and solar is rapidly increasing as compared to traditional thermal generation. In the past 20 years, the cost per kW of wind power plants has decreased by 40% and solar has dropped by 90%. Currently, wind and solar attribute to approximately 1,100 GW of electricity globally which forecasts indicate will rise to 2,000 GW in 2024. Similar trends in global energy storage deployments show an increase from 139 MW in 2012 to 1,173 MW in 2017 Annual global installations of renewable energy capacity are also steadily increasing. In 2017, 175 GW of new renewable energy was installed globally, the highest year on record.This includes 98 GW of solar PV which is expected to rise to 100 GW in 2018. This industry transformation and global advancement towards renewable generation has made it more difficult for existing inflexible baseload power plants, such as coal and nuclear, to efficiently provide solutions for customers. Since investments define and dictates a company’s strategy for the future, the existing business model is shifting from the era where centralized large units benefited from economies of scale. Moreover, as investments in new intermittent energy technology grow and prices for renewables reach a tipping point, utilities are starting to change their portfolios to involve more renewables and flexible generation. Flexible solutions like engine power plants and energy storage are the key to providing the needed reliability and ensuring the affordable cost of power systems. Renewale costs are forcasted to come down as follows:

Global weighted average data
Investment costs (2015 USD/kW)			Percent change	Capacity	factor	Percent change2	LCOE (2015 USD/kWh)	Percent change
2015         2025				2015	2025		2015         2025
Solar PV	1 810           790		-57%	18%	19%	8%	0.13           0.06	-59%
CSP (PTC: parabolic trough collector)	5 550	3 700	-33%	41%	45%	8.4%	0.15           0.09 -0.19          -0.12	-37%
CSP (ST: solar tower)	5 700	3 600	-37%	46%	49%	7.6%	0.15           0.08 -0.19          -0.11	-43%
Onshore wind	1 560         1 370		-12%	27%	30%	11%	0.07           0.05	-26%
Offshore wind	4 650          3 950		-15%	43%	45%	4%	0.18           0.12	-35%

Decreasing renewable costs

Today, large markets such as the US, the UK and specific regions in Central Europe exist for stand-alone energy storage due to high fuel costs and the levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) of renewables set to fall below those of conventional coal and gas by 2040. This will lead to a tipping point, where new build renewables will become cheaper than new build combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) or coal baseload plants and cause increasing focus on new investments into renewables. This tipping point will arrive at different times in different countries – in China, onshore wind is now beginning to gain a competitive advantage over coal however in the US, the best-in-class on shore wind is already cheaper than the new build CCGT.

Renewables cheaper than base load plants

A second tipping point will arrive when new build renewables become cheaper than running an existing gas or coal plant, hence the loaded costs of renewables will become cheaper than the marginal costs of thermal generation. This will cause retirements of thermal plants from the system ahead of their economic lifetime and speed up the transition. Eventually, these tipping points will lead to renewables achieving grid parity – where they generate power at an LCOE less than or equal to price of purchasing power from the electricity grid, without subsidies or government support.On a levelised cost of energy basis, by 2040, solar will become another 60% cheaper and wind will become another 40% cheaper.

Renewables replacing base load

 Base load capacity is being shut down and a prime example of this in Australia, which is in the process of steady decarburization. AGL Energy Limited, Australia’s leading integrated energy company is planning to replace the 1,000 MW Liddell coal plant with 1,600 MW of renewable energy, an additional 750 MW of flexible gas capacity and an additional 250 MW of energy storage.

Need for New Power Structure

In several emerging countries or regions, there is a massive need to expand access to electricity. Today, about 1.3 billion people in the world lack access to electricity; just in India, 250 million people do not have access. Large areas of Sub-Saharan Africa face the same challenge; the gap with time is not shirking

Reliable access to power is essential to improve the living conditions of populations across the world. It is also essential to enable the development of stronger manufacturing industries that can fuel economic growth and support the rise of a middle class. In short, access to power is absolutely necessary to allow emerging market countries to continue their economic convergence process.

As populations in large emerging markets populations improve their standards of living towards those currently enjoyed by advanced economies, natural resources consumption will grow at a fast pace. Sustainability is already a global priority—its importance will only grow in the coming decades. Countries will have to develop new strategies and solutions to make energy consumption more efficient, and improve the effectiveness and resiliency of energy distribution networks.

Developed countries, where electrification rates are already at or close to 100%, will also need to reduce emissions from power plants and improve energy efficiency as their economies continue to grow. Moreover, aging infrastructure in both generation and grid, as well as, an aging workforce, represent significant challenges.

Meanwhile, there is still significant scope to further reduce inefficiencies and losses in generation, transmission and distribution, to help ensure sufficient electricity provision across the global economy in a sustainable manner.

The future of energy is a new value chain augmented and interconnected by digital technologies, where both power and information flow in multiple directions, all actors add value to the system, and the overall efficiency and resilience of the system hinge on information sharing, openness, collaboration, coordination, and the right set of incentives. The end result will be a system that provides electricity in the most reliable, sustainable, and economic manner.

New Power and Energy System

It will encompass three key elements:

(1) A digital centralized generation pool, relying on a mix of fossil fuel and renewable sources; (2) a digital grid, connecting generation and consumption, and enabling the multidirectional flows of energy and information; and (3) a digital consumption setup, improving consumption patterns along with distributed generation and storage capacity.

Energy providers will join a new breed of digital-industrial companies. This will require changing their business models to take full advantage of new digital capabilities: balancing the fuel mix through big data analytics, accelerating the adoption of natural gas and renewable; optimizing plant operation by using analytics to reduce cost and emissions while maximizing economic output; and developing new ways to interact with customers. The power grid will realize its potential as a platform, accelerating innovation and efficiency gains.

This transformation will not be easy. It will require investing in infrastructure and new technologies; changing mindsets, public policies, and business models; investing in people through education and on-the-job skills upgrading; and developing open standards and ensuring interoperability. It will require the highest degree of cyber security against potential data privacy and system security risks.

The convergence of digital and physical technologies provides opportunity of unprecedented magnitude.  It could provide a future of energy that realizes the goal of ubiquitous access to clean, reliable, sustainable and secure electricity, while fostering economic growth through the creation of new energy ecosystems. 

New Power Structure

It will encompass three key elements: a digital centralized generation pillar, relying on a mix of fossil fuel and renewable sources; a digital grid, connecting generation and consumption, enabling the multidirectional flows of energy and information; and a digital consumption pillar, which will play an important role not just in improving consumption patterns, but in adding generation and storage capacity. Centralized power generation will remain critical even with the rise of distributed energy resources. It will provide the majority of the power supply, and ensure the continuity and reliability of electricity provision. The longstanding goal of ensuring reliable, affordable and safe access to electricity remains unchanged in the future of energy, and can only be guaranteed by a strong centralized power generation system.

Planning, Generation and Transmission   

Digital technologies will transform power generation from the very earliest stages, starting with the design and siting of power plants, and continuing through the operations and maintenance phases. The planning process will utilize comprehensive big-data analysis of the energy network. Data from distribution grid assets such as advanced meters, intelligent feeder monitoring and distributed resources can be combined with transmission data from phasor measurement units and other monitoring devices to develop predicted sub-hourly scenarios. These analyses will enable designers to simulate the load demand on a power plant. They will also estimate the financial viability of the plant under different alternative configurations, through a better understanding of the plant’s complex interactions with all other resources in the energy system. This can also help utilities balance their generation portfolio.

Renewable power plants are particularly impacted by location. Shading or vegetation can affect how much light reaches a solar plant; wind farms are dependent on wind patterns  A Digital Wind Farm, instead of settling for the least common denominator model, will allow to customize every turbine to its unique location on the farm. This can only be done by integrating the advances in digital infrastructure (cloud computation, advanced load and weather simulation algorithms, satellite topology images, etc.) and hardware technologies (modular turbines that allow different configurations such as optimum hub height, blade length and generator rating). The location of a new centralized power generation facility will also need to take into account the necessary Transmission and Distribution (T&D) infrastructure. T&D siting often involves a lengthy process of engaging multiple stakeholders to devise the appropriate pathway between power plants and load centers.

Today, new data tools such as advanced geospatial platforms and power flow modeling can evaluate the best grid layout and determine appropriate capacity requirements. Assessing sub-hourly interval data can help develop detailed scenarios to understand the tradeoff between installing or upgrading distribution lines and adding distributed energy resources, or how those resources may impact power flow. These digital capabilities are even more important when the environment becomes subject to faster, more frequent and more complex changes because of new revenue streams and system requirements such as frequency response, and new markets such as ancillary and capacity markets. These require more real time decisions and an improved transparency between plant capabilities and market dispatch.

The power lines, transformers, and control stations that make up  current energy grid are old, increasingly unreliable, and not adequate to handle a significant increase in renewable energy.

To move toward a cleaner energy economy,   is need to improve    electrical grid, as well as construct the transmission infrastructure needed to connect renewable energy facilities to cities and regions with high power demand.

Moving towards high renewable energy systems

Global progress towards achieving a 100% renewable energy future is being made at an incredibly rapid pace. Power providers, utilities and governments are changing their perspectives towards inflexible generation and existing thermal capacity is being replaced with renewables. This phased transformation, from the global power system operating at 0-20% renewables to a stage where 80-100% renewable energy systems will exist, requires major changes in infrastructure, investments and innovation in technology.

Status Quo

In the past, due to renewables being expensive as compared to fossil fuels, a large proportion of energy was produced by inflexible plants operating on coal, natural gas and nuclear. Inflexible generation was utilized to provide both base load power and peaking generation and opportunities for storage to cost effectively address ancillary services were limited due to the lack of development in the technology. Moreover, in this 0% renewables scenario, power systems in countries were based on conventional centralised grids and consumers were passive participants. Currently, the world is at 14% renewables, where flexible thermal capacity has begun to replace inflexible generation to enable more stable grids and renewables are becoming more competitive without subsidies. Now, storage is being more widely used for energy shifting and increasing intermittent load profiles are challenging the existing business model. Soon, grid parity of renewables and energy storage will also be achieved as the feasibility of integrating them increases. It is still everybody’s perception that it is cheaper to make power from coal than it is from renewables, and it is no longer the case. We are in an exciting transition where we can see where the market is going, and that is towards a renewable energy future.

Near Future

In an 80-100% renewables scenario, there will be no role for inflexible generation as renewables become the new base load and excess renewable energy is used as raw material for other commodities. This increase in the usage of renewables will require highly flexible thermal capacity to maintain system reliability and energy storage will become a key component in the base load grid to maintain overall grid balance. As the information and knowledge surrounding power generation is demystified, consumers will begin to actively participate in the system management and power-to-gas will be utilised to produce synthetic gas for flexible back up and seasonal load variations in lieu of flexible thermal capacity. On the issue of energy security and dispatch able power, he says that a combination of wind and solar with battery storage supplemented by pumped hydro generation could successfully supply the Australian market, without the need for coal-fired generation. Battery storage, gas turbines burning renewable fuels, and using excess wind and solar capacity to pump water uphill in hydro plants to provide power during demand peaks could deliver the 25% dispatch able capacity to ensure energy security.

  Flexibility   

Increasing flexibility in every part of a power system is vital to achieve high renewable integration. Flexibility ensures that power systems can adapt to fluctuations in both demand and supply in a cost effective manner. Conventional power systems were focused on ensuring sufficient generation capacity to meet peak demand however for power systems with a greater share of renewables, it will be more important to have sufficient flexibility. As the usage of renewables increase, variations in supply and demand will be significantly higher due to the intermittency of renewable energy sources, thus arises the need for efficient power regulation.

Flexibility offers power regulation, which is utilized for providing additional power for balancing the system when required and reducing power when demand decreases. In the short term, it will be important to provide the ability to maintain quick response times, where as in longer time frames, energy shifting and offering larger storage content will require more emphasis. Operational planning flexibility will also be required to ensure that sufficient flexibility resources are available to enable safe operation under forecast uncertainty in the supply (loss of generation units)

The three main types of flexibility required are daily, weekly and seasonal flexibility  The daily variations caused by changes in supply and demand will be covered by energy storage, a key component for overall grid balancing and will provide second and minute level frequency balancing when renewable energy is unavailable. In a 100% renewables scenario, flexible thermal capacity which will incorporate synthetic gas, biogas and synthetic liquid fuels for back up will replace existing baseload capacity and ensure week to week shifting and system reliability. Lastly, seasonal variation caused by significant changes in weather conditions such as monsoons or extended periods of daylight, will greatly affect the output of a high renewables power system. This will be balanced by fuel as a form of energy storage with existing LNG infrastructure and power-to-gas.

Since wind and solar power depend on the sun shining and the wind blowing, one way to deliver 100 percent renewable energy to a customer is by pairing that energy with pumped hydropower storage.

New Investments

In addition to investing in increasing flexibility, the transition to a 100% renewable energy system also requires massive investments in new capacity. As existing base load capacity will be replaced by flexible thermal capacity, renewables and storage, the intermittent nature of renewables will require a large increase in generation capacity to sufficiently meet peak demand as compared to traditional baseload power plants. In an 80% renewable energy system scenario, assuming peak demand remains constant, four times as much renewable energy capacity is required to meet demand compared to a 0% renewable system. Similarly, a 100% renewable energy system requires five times the amount of renewable energy capacity and four times the amount of energy storage. These investments, however massive, will become the lowest cost options in the future due to the decreasing costs of renewables.

On a country level, modelling conducted for the Philippines shows that total installed capacity increases from 24,735 MW to 64,271 MW from 20% renewable energy sources (RES) to 100% RES. Additionally, storage increases from 0 MWh to 44,000 MWh. These trends signify the importance of these sustainable technologies in the future and the importance of investing into these to accelerate the growth to a cleaner future.

To move to 100 percent renewable by 2050   no energy mix is quite the same: Sudan might rely heavily on rooftop solar panels, while Switzerland would depend on hydroelectric. The U.S. would lean on wind power. If these plans were fully deployed, 58 percent of the world’s energy would come from solar, 37 percent from wind, and the rest from hydroelectric, geothermal, tidal, and wave energy. Worldwide, all households, businesses, and governments would switch to electric appliances and heating systems—plus cars, trains, boats, planes, and heavy-duty vehicles. That level of transformation sounds daunting, and incredibly costly: the upfront cost of installing nearly 50 terawatts’ worth of wind, water, and solar technologies around the world at an astounding $125 trillion.

 A recent study, Greenpeace and DLR (German Aerospace Center) found that the investment necessary to reach a 100 per cent renewable goal will be huge, namely US$1 trillion a year. However, the good news is that it will be more than covered by the US$1.07 trillion in savings on fuel costs alone in the same period, (not to mention the vast co-benefits to human health and the avoided costs from climate change-related extreme weather). Phasing out fossil fuels and moving to 100% renewables make economic sense – especially when the true costs of our current energy system are taken into account. In recent years, the costs of wind and solar energy have declined substantially. For example, solar PV panel prices have dropped 75% since 2009

Electricity to be the energy of the future

The world is traveling slowly to 100 percent renewable resources, but according to leading scientists, this mission can be completed by the year 2050 with current technology. To accomplish this, electricity must replace conventional forms of power such as combustible engines and other systems which run primarily on gas or require a lot of heat. Although many major aspects of the world are already powered by electricity, barriers in industry, transportation, homes, and businesses need to be resolved before the path to 100 percent renewables are a conceivable option. Specifically, two main attributes come into play when considering the path to 100 percent renewable energy .Worldwide, all households, businesses, and governments would switch to electric appliances and heating systems—plus cars, trains, boats, planes, and heavy-duty vehicles   Achieving 100 % RE will require increasing the inter- connection between the electricity, the heating/ cooling, as well as the transport sectors. This allows renewable electricity to be channeled to a wider range of dispatchable end-uses such as in thermal systems, alternative forms of storage, or in electric vehicles.   the move toward greater electrification of heating and transport is likely to make it easier for jurisdictions to achieve their 100 % RE targets.

The WEO states that global electricity supply “is being transformed by the rise of renewables, putting electricity at the centre of the response to a range of environmental challenges”.It stresses that “increasing digitalization of the global economy is going hand-in-hand with electrification, making the need for electricity for daily living more essential than ever. Electricity is increasingly the ‘fuel’ of choice for meeting the energy needs of households and companies.”

In what it calls its New Policies Scenario, the IEA forecasts that between now and 2040, nearly 90 per cent of electricity demand growth will be in developing countries, while demand in advanced economies will come on the back of policies promoting the electrification of mobility and heat. In this scenario, it adds that by 2040, electricity demand in China will be more than twice that of the US, “with India a not-too-distant third”.

And the IEA notes that the potential for further electrification from today “is huge”: 65 per cent of final energy use could technically be met by electricity – today’s figure is 19 per cent. Birol also confirmed that for the first time, the total number of people with no access to electricity has fallen below 1 billion, driven in large part by the rural electrification efforts of the India government. And this kind of government intervention will increase, predicts the IEA. It advises that governments will have a critical influence in the direction of the future energy system, far more so than in recent years.

“Over 70 per cent of global energy investments will be government-driven and as such the message is clear – the world’s energy destiny lies with government decisions,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s Executive Director. “Crafting the right policies and proper incentives will be critical to meeting our common goals of securing energy supplies, reducing carbon emissions, improving air quality in urban centres, and expanding basic access to energy in Africa and elsewhere.”

The WEO finds mixed signals on the pace and direction of change. Oil markets are “entering a period of renewed uncertainty and volatility, including a possible supply gap in the early 2020s”. Meanwhile, demand for natural gas is on the rise, “erasing talk of a glut, as China emerges as a giant consumer”. The IEA notes that in power markets, “renewables have become the technology of choice, making up almost two-thirds of global capacity additions to 2040, thanks to falling costs and supportive government policies”.

Birol said that this “is transforming the global power mix”, and he forecast that the share of renewables in generation will rise to over 40 per cent by 2040, from 25 per cent today, even though coal remains the largest power source and gas remains the second-largest.

“This expansion brings major environmental benefits but also a new set of challenges that policy makers need to address quickly, he explained. “With higher variability in supplies, power systems will need to make flexibility the cornerstone of future electricity markets in order to keep the lights on. "The issue is of growing urgency as countries around the world are quickly ramping up their share of solar PV and wind, and will require market reforms, grid investments, as well as improving demand-response technologies, such as smart meters and battery storage technologies.”

 Market understanding

An energy system integrator should understand the evolving energy market and analyze economic and market trends to recognize value-based opportunities for customers in the utility and industrial market. Modern power system modeling, including technology flexibility constraints, high-resolution renewable energy profiles and co-optimization of energy and reserves, should be conducted to identify the requirements and long-term capacity additional needs for optimal power systems. This provides a holistic view of the type of assets that should be integrated into the system, the system requirements on a customer or country level and the type of technologies needed to minimize costs, and to maximize efficiency and reliability.

 Way Forward

Based on power system analysis and optimization, the next step is to design and build the assets required in a system. It requires looking within an individual asset, i.e. the building of a new power plant, which may be a hybrid (integrated solar, engines, storage) or a single technology power plant, to identify the various sub systems that need to be integrated and provide one functioning entity that can operate in a power system in the intended way. This step also requires understanding the values and operational and maintenance profiles for customers depending on the complexity of the power system and the number of energy sources to be integrated to create an optimal power system.

In order to set the scene for 100% renewables, the following policy principles are needed:

– provide market access for newcomers like citizens
– provide investment security to enable people to put their money on the right technology
– ensure direct benefits to communities
– increase efficiency of the energy system by combining heat and power
– create a level playing field between the renewable energies sector and fossil fuel industry

. We need to facilitate dialogue so that countries can learn from the invaluable experiences of other countries in order to avoid wasting scarce resources.

Policy-makers, who wish to streamline their efforts in achieving the target of 100% renewable energy .need to:

#1: Make energy efficiency a top priority

#2: Electrify the heating/cooling and transport sector

#3: Maximize opportunities for citizen participation and the development of business models

#4: Educate and inform citizens and businesses

#5: Adopt an integrated approach to fiscal, economic & energy policy

 Major barriers and solutions

For a country to become 100% renewable, it faces certain technical, economical and political challenges.
- Technical challenges include building of a truly smart grid and integration of storage and micro grid into it. An automated demand response has to be developed to manage energy usage and large swing in supply during peak electric demand, particularly in buildings. Last decade has seen the tremendous development in low cost smart electronics, which will enable the necessary energy management.

- Economic constrains also offers major challenge, as substantial investment is required for the implementation of renewable energy on large scale. It requires large investment in grid storage, transmission to redistribute power and to smooth out intermittency. Among the storage methods available today, pumped-storage hydroelectricity is most cost effective. Low cost electric motors can also be encouraged as it offers the potential for substantial storage via vehicle-to-grid architectures.

- Political challenges include creation of regulatory framework, setting standards and offering incentives to economies to enable them to make dramatic shift in their energy usage to renewables .Political will to accomplish such a challenging goal must exist  and political leaders should come together to plot a course that make economic sense.

Renewable energy should be targeted in the most effective locations such as in the areas without an extensive grid infrastructure, micro-grids should be created and energy storage should be utilized. We should gradually move towards 100% renewable and allow technical advancement and cost reduction along the way which will be driven by global market.

Technology upgrades

Technology upgrades look at capital-intensive equipment and fleet that will be replaced over the medium and long-term. The plan will identify the timing of upgrades or replacements evaluate available and emerging options to achieve step-changes in energy efficiency, and estimate the likely costs and benefits

This way, end-of-life opportunities to implement best practice technologies are not missed and can be planned and budgeted for. Options can also include fuel switching and electric vehicles.

 Customer needs awareness

Serving seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of energy systems, including fully integrated assets and advanced software complete with value adding lifecycle services for customers. This step also includes understanding the customers’ needs over the lifecycle and how to optimise and maintain the existing asset portfolio of a power market operator.

 Solutions for a 100% renewable energy future

Flexibility and hybrid solutions are critical components for leading this transition to a 100% renewable energy future. Smart Power Generation plants provide the best means of support to the power system by offering the highest degree of flexibility, enabling major savings, and creating an optimized response to rapid changes in intermittent generation. To enable the transition for its customers

Smart Power Generation (SPG) engine power plants play a key role in providing the operational and fuel flexibility for engine power plants needed to enable the transition to a modern, reliable power system. For today’s emerging low carbon systems, it effectively absorbs current and future system load variations and provides dramatic savings.SPG technology: balances large input fluctuations of wind and solar; Allows base load plants to be released from cyclic operation and provides high efficiency base load, peaking, and load following power; Contributes to grid frequency regulation and system stability; Improves the total efficiency of power systems. Its main cornerstones are high energy efficiency, outstanding operational flexibility, and multi-fuel operation.

SPG provides super-fast grid reserve capacity on a national power system level and while in standby mode; SPG reserve capacity does not consume any fuel, generate emissions or suffer from wear and has a start-up time of 2 minutes. When large power plants are not needed to provide reserve capacity over and above the capacity needed to meet normal peak demand, the efficiency of the whole power system increases. This enables a more stable operational profile for the large power plants and the additional maintenance costs connected with cyclic operation are reduced.

Energy storage hybrid solutions

Energy storage technologies are a critical part of the power system in a 100% renewable energy world. Both capacities and output of storage are expected to increase hundredfold with more than a quarter of all electricity in the system going through storage and the 1.3 TWh of storage energy capacity present today is expected to rise to 1,050 TWh .  

Gas-to-power

In recent years, there has been a global shift towards cleaner fuels. This has led to an increasing abundance of liquefied natural gas (LNG) available from markets and increased opportunity to transport LNG in smaller quantities to smaller users. Levelised costs of electricity in the US especially show that gas can compete closely with coal on a cost of generation basis and the role of gas in power generation is increasing as it is being more widely utilised to run engine power plants that are integrated with intermittent wind and solar systems.

Gas power plants are advantageous as compared to other thermal dispatch able plants as they can be constructed rapidly at a reasonable cost and produce lower emissions. As the share of wind and solar capacity increases and the net load to thermal plants decreases, gas power plants can also provide peaking to system balancing. Liquefied natural gas is a low emission fuel that is becoming increasingly relevant for industrial facilities, shipping industries, and energy providers.   

Conclusions

Today, we have the technology to address at least 80% of the world’s energy needs with renewable resources, at a socioeconomic cost less than or at parity with our current dirty ways. And while the path to 100% renewable energy still requires a great deal of technological innovation, we have some of the best minds on the planet tackling the last 20% of the equation. From catalyzing hydrogen with solar resources for fuel cells, to battery technologies with smart demand response, to innovative financial mechanisms that incentivize solar deployment in developing countries – there are countless initiatives across the world to address the technological and economic challenges of 100% renewable energy.

The transition to a 100% renewable energy future is well underway, with increasing renewable integration, decreasing cost competitiveness of inflexible power generation and remarkable changes in the energy markets across the globe. To work towards a cleaner, more sustainable and energy efficient future, it is imperative for energy providers to adapt their strategies.