Renewables and PHEVs

Moderator: Laura Stuchinsky, City of San Jose 

Bill Boyce

Sacramento Municipal Utilities District

• Small utility, 530,000 services accounts, mostly residential
• Wind 102 MW, solar 11 MW
• Solar took 20 years to go to 11MW, they are going to 120 MW in 10 years
• Looking at PHEV load but doesn't expect to be a significant factor soon
• 71% of wind and solar would produce only 43% due to intermittence
• To achieve 71% energy parity would require 15,670 GWh or 42.9 GWh/day of energy storage
• 90 GW of pumped capacity in US
• SMUDs need is critical peak power. 10 days in summer temp goes above 105 and for 4 hours each day, so needs 400 MW for 40 hrs per year
• EPRI EV market penetration 11%-2015, 52%-2030
• In Sacramento, 50% commute is 13 miles round trip. Needs 2kWh. By 2030 this should provide almost 1,500 mWh vs the 1,600 MWh needed for peak shaving
• 2.2 kW PV array will produce 30% to 40% of household energy per year.
• PVs operate at 300 to 500 volts, same as EV so would be nice to make an charger for EVs that work directly off PVs
• Battery warranty will be a major barrier to using PHEVs for energy storage

Steven Clarke

Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy & Environmental Affairs

Offshore Wind

• Wind production globally was 18 GW in 2000 and in 2007 over 93 GW
• 17 GW of onshore wind in US, mainly in Texas
• Offshore wind is more prevalent in Europe, mainly due to limited onshore land space. Denmark and UK both have about 400 MW
• With existing technology, it is technology feasible to have 20% of US electric capacity to come from wind by 2030
• Wind advantages: stable fuel price, proximity to load centers, reduce transmission bottlenecks
• Major environmental benefits
• Avian impacts can be minimized and birds learn to avoid them
• US has 900 GW of offshore wind potential. Also China, Brazil and Australia has good potential.
• Offshore wind is currently double the cost of onshore wind
• Existing anchored offshore wind technology works best in shallow waters
• Cape Wind 420 MW could be the first; proposed 8 years ago
• There could be 100 GW off of New England, which is much more than current electric capacity
• 64% of cost for onshore wind installs is turbine, offshore turbines is 33% but other costs much higher
• Moving to large turbines of 3.6 MW and 5 MW. These are large and there a lot of technological challenges to build, test and move them. In pipeline are 8 MW, 10 MW and research into 20 MW turbines.
• DOE estimates that you need at least a 5 MW turbine for offshore projects to be financially viable
• Next generation are floating turbines that can be employed in sea depths over 100 feet
• Best winds are usually at night that don't correspond with peak demand
• PHEV could utilize wind energy well

Tom McCalmont

Chair SolarTech, CEO Regrid Power, Stanford MBA

Solar and PHEV's

• Renewable power sources by terawatts: Hydropower 0.7, Biomass 8, Geothermal 0.5, Wind 5, Nuclear 0.5, Solar 60 (60 TW of solar power easily harvestable)
• Demand worldwide is 13 Terawatts, in 2050 will be 30 Terawatts
• What's needed: Inverters that support both PHEVs and grid-connected solar or provide direct charging of PHEVs from solar panels
• Challenges: 120 VAC not very fast, 240 VAC no standards on chargers, plugs and current ratings
• National Electric Code (NEC) is very good but on a slow, 10 year cycle. Current changes won't be used until 2018

Questions

• Wind wasted at night? Answer: Steven didn't see this problem in his region but storage would certainly help smooth out variability of wind. However some else noted that in Colorado this is a big problem.
• Solar parking lot viability? Answer: Yes, this is area with a lot of interest since parking lots have space and panels would provide shade. These are being installed just to put power into the grid, but could be useful for EV charging.
• Wind opposition? Answer: Wind isn't as bad as alternatives: coal, natural gas, nuclear