Electricity in Texas – how Texas Could get to 100% renewables electricity

Abstract

This talk will use the results from a 2010-12 historical grid model of Texas with load and wind power and hourly solar PV derived from solar irradiance for those years. It will examine the characteristics of Texas wind and solar PV generation and the effect of storage on demand coverage and surplus generation. It will then explore three scenarios with increasing renewables penetration, ending with a possible 100% renewable solution for Texas for the 2030-2040 time frame. The likely range of costs for each resource will be discussed and costs for the 100% renewable scenario will be presented.

Biography

Peter worked for IBM for over 30 years as an information technology architect with a variety of banking, energy and government customers. He is now a mature, part-time PhD student in the Condensed Matter Theory Group (CMTH) of Imperial College using DFT (Density Functional Theory – from Schroedinger’s equation) to model energy storage in nano-scale capacitors. Peter’s strong interests include climate change, energy and electricity grids and his ideal next role will hopefully involve both research and blogging on electricity grids. Since China is the biggest player in renewable energy and climate change he is also learning Chinese.

Venue

The seminars will be held in the Sutton Lecture Theatre, which is room 1.31 in the Royal School of Mines (building 9 on the campus map). The simplest route is to enter the building from Prince Consort Road and take the stairs on your left hand side up one flight. Step through the glass double doors on your left and the and the entrance to the lecture theatre is on your right.