In the world of renewable energy, where decisions about where to build new wind and solar plants are often left to the discretion of individual developers, a solution emerges that could revolutionize the sector: coordinated planning at the regional level. This is the idea at the heart of a study just published on Cell Reports Sustainabilitycreated by researchers from MIT.
Renewable resources, such as the sun and wind, have one thing in common: their variability. It may seem like a limit, but not for Liying Qiu And Rahman Khorramfarco-authors of the study, who see an opportunity in this feature. Through an approach based on high-resolution meteorological data, the team demonstrated that it is possible to harmonize the production peaks of different energy sources, distributing the plants in the right places, as Qiu explains:
Each source has its strong point: the wind blows at night when the sun is missing, while the sun shines when the wind dies down. The real challenge is understanding where and how to best exploit this complementarity.
Precision planning: the case of the United States
To give substance to their theory, the researchers focused on three macro-regions of the United States: New England, Texas and California. They used advanced energy models integrated with meteorological data at a resolution of just 2 kilometers, analyzing more than 138,000 possible sites for renewable plants. This level of detail represents a departure from traditional planning, which often relies on more general data, with a resolution of 30 kilometers.
In Texas, for example, the wind blows strongly in the morning in the western areas and in the afternoon along the coast. This natural complementarity allows for more homogeneous coverage of energy demand. In New England, however, the study suggests favoring windy areas during the night to balance the absence of solar energy, as Khorramfar points out:
With our approach we have significantly reduced system costs, optimizing the alignment between production and demand.
Reducing the need for accumulation: an unexpected advantage
One of the most surprising results concerns the role of storage systems. Detailed planning helps reduce dependence on expensive batteries, which often represent one of the heaviest costs of a decarbonized energy system, as illustrated Saurabh Aminone of the authors:
We discovered significant savings potential simply by analyzing daily variations in sun and wind. “A detail that had until now been largely overlooked.
The proposed methodology is not limited to the United States. The model is flexible and can be applied anywhere, adapting to local geographical and climatic specificities. This perspective opens up new opportunities for a more sustainable and economically advantageous energy transition, as he concludes Michael Howlandco-author of the study:
It’s not just about building more plants, but about doing it intelligently, ensuring that every kilowatt-hour produced finds its place in the grid.
