Timing and placement of wind and solar power facilities are critical factors for Texas electricity providers that juggle their output with other resources to provide a balanced flow of energy. Rice University researchers have some suggestions on how they can integrate widely varying sources more efficiently.

Rice undergraduate student Joanna Slusarewicz, along with environmental engineer Daniel Cohan, performed an analysis of recent peaks in production from West and South Texas renewable resources and suggested that the state’s power production can be made more reliable by adjusting where and when those resources are deployed. Their open-access paper is published in Renewables: Wind, Water and Solar.

While established wind and a growing set of solar generators provided about 18 percent of Texas’ power in 2017, judicious use could help those resources punch above their weight as coal-fired power plants leave the landscape, the researchers wrote. (Three Texas coal plants have closed this year and a fourth closure is anticipated.)

For more information:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181205142724.htm