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Sensitivity of Solar Fossil Hybrid Electricity Technology Penetration to Price and Efficiency Projections
Citation:
Brown, K. Sensitivity of Solar Fossil Hybrid Electricity Technology Penetration to Price and Efficiency Projections. 35th USAEE North American Conference, Houston,TX, November 12 - 15, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation is to be submitted for consideration to be presented in Houston, Texas during the United States Association for Energy Economics conference November 12-15, 2017. This abstract and the presentation will allow us to show other researchers the capability of our modelling system as well as get feedback on the structure of the simulations presented here to further improve this modelling for use both within the agency and for future publications.
Description:
With many aging coal and nuclear plants nearing retirement age, new electricity production capacity will need to be built over the next several decades. There are many methods of generating electricity, each with different benefits and drawbacks. While solar and wind generation are now cost competitive with fossil fuels in many parts of the country, both have issues with intermittency which must be addressed through redundancies, such as natural gas turbines that supplement generation during low output, or energy storage. Conversely, renewable technologies usually do not require continuous fuel purchase, which can reduce the lifeteime cost. If the pairing of renewables and fossil generation is done intentionally, there can be cost-savings by decreasing the footprint of the facility and sharing transmission capacity. The Hybrid Solar Gas Combined-Cycle (HSGCC) technology considered here combines solar thermal and natural gas combined cycle such that the solar heat increases the temperature of combustion and decreases the amount of fuel required. Previous research efforts (Barigozzi et al. 2012, Spelling and Laumert 2014) have analyzed the technological potential of a facility that combines natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) and solar thermal to reduce the demand for fuel compared to NGCC while relieving operators of concerns about intermittent.. This analysis investigates whether such a technology could be competitive in the U.S electricity market and how it might impact emissions from the electricity system.