{"title":"A Path to 100 Percent Renewable Energy: Grid-Forming Inverters will Give Us the Grid We Need Now","authors":"Benjamin Kroposki;Andy Hoke","doi":"10.1109/MSPEC.2024.10523014","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This is a more urgent problem than it might sound. The westernmost Hawaiian island of significant size, Kauai is home to around 70,000 residents and 30,000 tourists at any given time. Renewable energy accounts for 70 percent of the energy produced in a typical year—a proportion that's among the highest in the world and that can be hard to sustain for such a small and isolated grid. During the day, the local system operator, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, sometimes reaches levels of 90 percent from solar alone. But on 2 April, the 26-MW generator was running near its peak output, to compensate for the drop in solar output as the sun set. At the moment when it failed, that single generator had been supplying 60 percent of the load for the entire island, with the rest being met by a mix of smaller generators and several utility-scale solar-and-battery systems.","PeriodicalId":13249,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Spectrum","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Spectrum","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10523014/","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This is a more urgent problem than it might sound. The westernmost Hawaiian island of significant size, Kauai is home to around 70,000 residents and 30,000 tourists at any given time. Renewable energy accounts for 70 percent of the energy produced in a typical year—a proportion that's among the highest in the world and that can be hard to sustain for such a small and isolated grid. During the day, the local system operator, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, sometimes reaches levels of 90 percent from solar alone. But on 2 April, the 26-MW generator was running near its peak output, to compensate for the drop in solar output as the sun set. At the moment when it failed, that single generator had been supplying 60 percent of the load for the entire island, with the rest being met by a mix of smaller generators and several utility-scale solar-and-battery systems.
期刊介绍:
IEEE Spectrum Magazine, the flagship publication of the IEEE, explores the development, applications and implications of new technologies. It anticipates trends in engineering, science, and technology, and provides a forum for understanding, discussion and leadership in these areas.
IEEE Spectrum is the world''s leading engineering and scientific magazine. Read by over 300,000 engineers worldwide, Spectrum provides international coverage of all technical issues and advances in computers, communications, and electronics. Written in clear, concise language for the non-specialist, Spectrum''s high editorial standards and worldwide resources ensure technical accuracy and state-of-the-art relevance.