Research Publications

Due to favorable public policy and falling technology costs more and more jurisdictions around the world are adopting higher shares of variable renewable energy into their power systems. Although some countries and jurisdictions, as part of larger interconnected systems, have been able to operate for extended periods of time with 100% of their demand covered with VRE, operating a self-sufficient power system annually with only VRE sources is not yet possible (with the exception of a few micro and mini grid systems, with state of the art technologies and practices). This study through a high-level qualitative assessment, identifies limitations of current and future power systems to host very high shares of VRE. To develop insights on power systems with high shares of VRE current academic literature was reviewed, seventeen experts in the field of renewable energy integration were interviewed and case studies of power systems already operating with high shares of variable renewable energy were analyzed.