Offshore wind and wave energy can reduce total installed capacity required in zero-emissions grids

As the world races to decarbonize power systems to mitigate climate change, the body of research analyzing paths to zero emissions electricity grids has substantially grown. Although studies typically include commercially available technologies, few of them consider offshore wind and wave energy as contenders in future zero-emissions grids. Here, we model with high geographic resolution both offshore wind and wave energy as independent technologies with the possibility of collocation in a power system capacity expansion model of the Western Interconnection with zero emissions by 2050. In this work, we identify cost targets for offshore wind and wave energy to become cost effective, calculate a 17% reduction in total installed capacity by 2050 when offshore wind and wave energy are fully deployed, and show how curtailment, generation, and transmission change as offshore wind and wave energy deployment increase.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2024-08-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-50040-6
Citations
29
Primary Topic
Wave and Wind Energy Systems
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
9.74

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article

Offshore wind and wave energy can reduce total installed capacity required in zero-emissions grids

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29 citations
Nature Communications
Wave and Wind Energy Systems
9.74
article

Offshore wind and wave energy can reduce total installed capacity required in zero-emissions grids

Pedro Andres Sanchez Perez, Paul Serna-Torre, Deborah A. Sunter, Julia Szinai, Martin Staadecker, Bryan Murray, Daniel M. Kammen, Ryan Davidson, Patricia Hidalgo-Gonzalez, Natalia González, Rachel Wei
article en
29 citations

Abstract

As the world races to decarbonize power systems to mitigate climate change, the body of research analyzing paths to zero emissions electricity grids has substantially grown. Although studies typically include commercially available technologies, few of them consider offshore wind and wave energy as contenders in future zero-emissions grids. Here, we model with high geographic resolution both offshore wind and wave energy as independent technologies with the possibility of collocation in a power system capacity expansion model of the Western Interconnection with zero emissions by 2050. In this work, we identify cost targets for offshore wind and wave energy to become cost effective, calculate a 17% reduction in total installed capacity by 2050 when offshore wind and wave energy are fully deployed, and show how curtailment, generation, and transmission change as offshore wind and wave energy deployment increase.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 15(1)
University of New Brunswick (CA), Tufts University (US), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), University of California, Merced (US), Universidad de Oviedo (ES), University of Toronto (CA), University of California San Diego (US), InertialWave (United States) (US), University of California, Berkeley (US)
National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Energy, Water Power Technologies Office
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Wave and Wind Energy Systems
9.74
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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