Running the USA from Wind and Solar
Abstract
This paper investigates the proposition that wind and solar energy can run the entire continental US electricity system without blackouts. The aim of this paper is to employ hour by hour datasets for the entire year to establish the amount of wind power, solar concentrating solar power and electricity storage that would be required to reliably meet the entire 2006 electricity load of the continental United States. The United States was selected for the modelling study because it is a large-sized system with many generation sites for good statistics, has a large range of weather regions, has very good load data from past years, and is a major emitter of greenhouse gases. This paper is an individual effort of the authors and has no connection to former or current employers.