Focus on renewable energy integration

Adelaide Advertiser
Saturday 11/12/2010 Page: 91

A CREATIVE combination of government regulations and more advanced technology will be needed to integrate renewable energy sources such as solar and wind into electricity grids worldwide on a more significant scale, says a panel of international experts. Hundreds of engineers, researchers and policymakers from abroad are gathering this week in New Mexico to talk about the future of renewable and distributed energy systems.

The mission of those at the conference is to find more affordable and efficient ways to mesh large-scale solar and wind farms and smaller distributed generation systems, which include the sea of solar panels popping up on residential rooftops around the world, into grids dependent on consistent sources of power.

They're also focusing on ways policymakers can develop regulatory roadmaps for encouraging more renewable energy. "It's all got to come together", says Charles Hanley, the manager of Sandia's Photovoltaics and Grid Integration Department. Mr Hanley referred to an idea he heard earlier in the week, that researchers aren't looking for a silver bullet, but rather "silver buckshot".

"We want to address everything that is necessary to make up a solid portfolio - that's on the regulation side, the R&D side and the technology and market acceptance side", he says. "There's got to be a number of pieces that add up to an overall solution to come away with an optimised smart grid that has a high penetration of renewable and distributed sources".

Nearly 30 states have developed renewable energy portfolio standards that require electric utilities to get as much as 25% of their power from renewable sources within the next decade, but experts at the conference say Europe leads the way when it comes to its goal of making renewables a majority source of power.

While the European Union has set targets of 20% by 2020, New Mexico Public Regulation Commissioner Jason Marks notes the United States is far from adopting a national renewable portfolio standard. "What's unfortunate is in our country energy policy has been politicised in a very destructive way", he said. "It's mostly been focused on climate change". Mr Marks says large systems for harnessing solar and wind power were only talked about in laboratories a couple of decades ago; now it is being done around the world every day.