Does increasing renewable energy generation decrease reliability or security?
Does increasing renewable energy generation decrease reliability or security?
Hello everyone,
Many of you who are reading this will be accustomed to a constant power supply: warming (or cooling) your home, switching on your lights and powering your devices. As the world shifts away from fossil fuels and their associated carbon emissions to renewable energy, will this power supply become less reliable? We asked two experts in renewable energy and electronic engineering, ‘Does increasing renewable energy generation decrease reliability or security?’, here is what they said…
EXPERT CONSENSUS
Does increasing renewable energy generation decrease reliability or security?
2 experts conclude: ‘Uncertain’
What is renewable energy?
Renewable energy is energy that is replenished quicker than it is used. Renewable energy systems include geothermal, solar, hydro, wind, tidal and biomass. In 2020, 43% of the UK’s national grid electricity came from wind, solar, bioenergy and hydroelectric sources. Global renewable energy is expected to grow by 2,400 gigawatts (GW) from 2022 to 2027, which is almost equivalent of China’s power capacity today!
Are renewable energy systems as reliable as fossil fuels?
‘Reliability’ refers to the ability of an energy system to deliver electricity in the quantity and quality needed by users. Power demands vary widely, for example in the UK the average demand in winter is 36% higher than in summer due to home heating. Dr Oliver Vavasour, an expert in electrical engineering from Warwick University in the UK, highlights another example: “demand can peak (say, when most of the country get home from work and all turn the oven or kettle on).”
Can renewable energy systems meet these constant and varying power demands? Well, it depends on the system. Dr Vavasour says “Wind and solar power are naturally variable, and not only can production vary over time and dip to almost zero”. However, he says “Hydroelectric power is less variable, and can even react to changes in demand, storing water above the dam when it's not needed and letting it all down when it is.”
Dr Falko Ueckerft, an expert in renewable energy and energy systems from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, says “There is no fundamental reason why renewable energy systems shouldn't be as reliable as conventional systems - but it requires a system transformation.” This transformation would mainly involve being able to harness the peak power outputs from wind and sun energy to use them when demand peaks. Dr Ueckerft explains: “During the transition towards especially high shares of wind and solar PV [photovoltaics, the technology which converts wind or sun power to electricity], systems have to adapt to balance variable electricity demand and variable supply from wind/solar PV. It thus might require flexibility measures (e.g. market design or technical options such as storage and larger grids) to achieve the same level of reliability i.e. matching of demand and supply in each day, hour, second, millisecond.”
Dr Ueckerft warns that “If solar/wind generators are introduced into an inflexible system without transformation towards more flexibility, reliability can decrease.”
Dr Vavasour summarises, saying that “Supply and demand management and large-scale energy storage will be increasingly important technology as the world moves towards renewable energy.”
Are renewable energy systems as secure as fossil fuels?
‘Security’ refers to the ability of an energy system to remain stable when unexpected events occur.
Dr Ueckerft says “this is security of supply such as import dependence. Here, renewable systems can perform better than fossil systems as the import dependence tends to decrease (because renewable potentials/access is more widespread than fossil resources).” As an example, the European Union imports about 60% of its energy. This energy source is mainly from fossil fuels and is not very secure as it is subject to political unrest – domestic renewable systems are much more secure.
Other potential security issues could include technical failures in wind turbines or other renewable energy systems. However, as Dr Vavasour highlights, “Oil and gas rigs can experience accidents”, so this is not unique to renewable energy systems.
The takeaway:
Renewable energy is more secure than fossil fuels, and it could be just as reliable with technical advances in energy storage.
May the facts be with you!
Eva
Is it possible to sustain our current standards of living and also slow down climate change?
Learn more about global warming with our deep-diving review
If you like our newsletters you can make a donation to support our work here at Metafact.
Verified by Metafact is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.