California 50% RPS designed to disrupt old school.
California plans to intentionally force closures of out of state Coal and Nuclear plants to comply with 50% RPS rules. NREL Labs enable poor grid planning.
The primary driver behind the difference in carbon emissions in the scenarios studied is curtailment, whether that curtailment is caused by a lack of diversity in the renewable portfolio,the 25% minimum regional generation rule, the 70% import constraint, or lack of storage. The cases that have higher curtailment displace less fossil-fueled generation and have higher emissions.
This is because the method to assign emissions assumes that all displaced generation is natural gas, but some of the generation displaced in the scenarios is out-of-state coal (due to reduced unspecified imports and sales of California-entitled generation) , which has emissions rates closer to 1 MT/MWh.
The conventional grid flexibility assumptions require 1) importing 70% of out-of- state zero -carbon resources, 2) 25% local minimum generation requirements from natural gas and hydro, 3) no new storage beyond CPUC mandate , and 4) limitations on ancillary service provision from hydro and storage.
A state using the its power to influence national policy is nothing new. What makes California unique is the size of its economy, and the attendant impact of its policy. If they can make this work, it will have enormous influence on national energy policy, regardless of who is in political power.
Consulting and contract work for chemistry and process engineering
5yMaybe I am missing something. But this seems insane
Co-founder, Mothers for Nuclear // for Energy - Environment - Humanity
7yI don't understand this article.