In the 21st century, transitioning to renewable energy sources is imperative, with fossil fuel reserves depleting rapidly and recognizing critical environmental issues such as climate change, air pollution, water pollution, and habitat destruction. Embracing renewable energy is not only an environmental necessity but also a strategic move with multiple benefits. By shifting to renewable energy sources and supporting their production through the acquisition of renewable energy certificates, we foster innovation and drive economic growth in the renewable energy sector. This, in turn, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, aligning with global efforts to mitigate climate change. Additionally, renewable energy certificates ensure compliance with regulations that mandate the use of renewable energy, enhancing legal adherence while promoting transparency and trust in energy sourcing. To monitor the uptake of renewable energy, governments have implemented Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) as a tracking mechanism for the production and consumption of renewable energy. However, there are two main challenges to the existing REC schema: 1) The RECs have not been globally adopted due to inconsis
This paper develops a multi-period optimization framework to design a voluntary renewable program (VRP) for an electric utility company, aiming to maximize total renewable energy deployments. In the business model of VRP, the utility must ensure it generates renewable energy up to the total amount of contract during each market episode (i.e., a year), while all the revenue collected from the VRP must either be used to invest in procuring renewable capacities or to maintain the current renewable fleet and infrastructure. We thus formulate the problem as an optimal pricing problem coupled with revenue allocation and renewable deployment decisions. We model the demand function of voluntary renewable contracts as an exponential decay function based on survey data. We analytically derive the optimal pricing policy of the VRP as a function of the current grid carbon intensity. We prove that a myopic policy is conditionally optimal, which maximizes renewable capacity in each period, attains the long-run optimum due to the utility's revenue-neutral constraint. We show different binding conditions and marginal values of decision variables correspond to different phases of the energy transit
In a world increasingly powered by renewables and aiming for greenhouse gas-neutral industrial production, the future competitiveness of todays top manufacturing countries is questioned. This study applies detailed energy system modeling to quantify the Renewable Pull, an incentive for industry relocation exerted by countries with favorable renewable conditions. Results reveal that the Renewable Pull is not a cross-industrial phenomenon but strongly depends on the relationship between energy costs and transport costs. The intensity of the Renewable Pull varies, with China, India, and Japan facing a significantly stronger effect than Germany and the United States. Incorporating national capital cost assumptions proves critical, reducing Germanys Renewable Pull by a factor of six and positioning it as the second least affected top manufacturing country after Saudi Arabia. Using Germany as a case study, the analysis moreover illustrates that targeted import strategies, especially within the EU, can nearly eliminate the Renewable Pull, offering policymakers clear options for risk mitigation.
We develop an energy management system (EMS) for artificial intelligence (AI) data centers with colocated renewable generation. Under a cost-minimizing framework, the EMS of renewable-colocated data center (RCDC) co-optimizes AI workload scheduling, on-site renewable utilization, and electricity market participation. Within both wholesale and retail market participation models, the economic benefit of the RCDC operation is maximized. Empirical evaluations using real-world traces of electricity prices, data center power consumption, and renewable generation demonstrate significant electricity cost reduction from renewable and AI data center colocations.
Accurate and reliable forecasting of renewable energy generation is crucial for the efficient integration of renewable sources into the power grid. In particular, probabilistic forecasts are becoming essential for managing the intrinsic variability and uncertainty of renewable energy production, especially wind and solar generation. This paper considers the setting where probabilistic forecasts are provided for individual renewable energy sites using, e.g., quantile regression models, but without any correlation information between sites. This setting is common if, e.g., such forecasts are provided by each individual site, or by multiple vendors. However, to effectively manage a fleet of renewable generators, it is necessary to aggregate these individual forecasts to the fleet level, while ensuring that the aggregated probabilistic forecast is statistically consistent and reliable. To address this challenge, this paper presents the integrated use of Copula and Monte-Carlo methods to aggregate individual probabilistic forecasts into a statistically calibrated, probabilistic forecast at the fleet level. The proposed framework is validated using synthetic data from several large-scale
The transformation of the energy system has raised concerns about the reliability of fully renewable energy systems. We address this question for a 2050 European energy system using an economically optimal adequacy assessment. Our results show that a cost-optimal, fully renewable European system can be as reliable as a fossil-based one, with an average loss of load of only 0.03% due to variability in renewable generation. Outages primarily affect industrial and service sectors, while household supply remains largely uninterrupted. Regional differences in supply security emerge, with outages concentrated in countries with a low Value of Lost Load (VoLL). We demonstrate that system reliability can be fully ensured at negligible additional cost (+0.17%) by modestly increasing hydrogen turbine (+10%) and battery capacities (+15%) beyond the cost-optimal levels. We conclude that well-designed renewable energy systems are stable, with hydrogen-based backup being a key enabler of reliability.
This study analyses the potential of renewable energy to reduce inflationary pressures arising from energy imports in Turkiye. Annual data for the period 1980-2022 are used in the analysis. In this study, unit root properties are examined using the Zivot-Andrews and Lee-Strazicich tests, both of which explicitly account for structural breaks. Cointegration is investigated via the Johansen and Hatemi-J cointegration tests. Long-run coefficients are subsequently estimated using the DOLS and FMOLS estimators. The robustness of the empirical findings is further assessed using the ARDL approach. In addition, an interaction term is constructed to measure the impact of renewable energy in alleviating inflationary pressures arising from energy imports. The results show that energy imports and exchange rate have an increasing impact on inflation, while renewable energy and the interaction term have a decreasing impact. DOLS, FMOLS, and ARDL results support each other. Moreover, in both models, the impact of renewable energy in mitigating inflationary pressures stemming from energy imports is stronger than the direct disinflationary impact of renewable energy.
Modular data centers (MDCs) that can be placed right at the energy farms and powered mostly by renewable energy, are proven to be a flexible and effective approach to lowering the carbon footprint of data centers. However, the main challenge of using renewable energy is the high variability of power produced, which implies large volatility in powering computing resources at MDCs, and degraded application performance due to the task evictions and migrations. This causes challenges for platform operators to decide the MDC deployment. To this end, we present SkyBox, a framework that employs a holistic and learning-based approach for platform operators to explore the efficient use of renewable energy with MDC deployment across geographical regions. SkyBox is driven by the insights based on our study of real-world power traces from a variety of renewable energy farms -- the predictable production of renewable energy and the complementary nature of energy production patterns across different renewable energy sources and locations. With these insights, SkyBox first uses the coefficient of variation metric to select the qualified renewable farms, and proposes a subgraph identification algo
This paper proposes a novel computationally efficient algorithm for optimal sizing of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) considering renewable energy bidding strategies. Unlike existing two-stage methods, our algorithm enables the cooptimization of both by updating the BESS size during the training of the bidding policy, leveraging an extended reinforcement learning (RL) framework inspired by advancements in embodied cognition. By integrating the Deep Recurrent Q-Network (DRQN) with a distributed RL framework, the proposed algorithm effectively manages uncertainties in renewable generation and market prices while enabling parallel computation for efficiently handling long-term data.
In pursuit of carbon neutrality, many countries have adopted renewable portfolio standards to facilitate the integration of renewable energy. However, increasing penetration of renewable energy resources will also pose higher requirements on system flexibility. Allowing renewable themselves to participate in the reserve market could be a viable solution. To this end, this paper proposes an optimal dispatch model for joint energy-reserve procurement that incorporates renewable portfolio standards and RES serve as reserve providers. Potential generator outages and deviations in renewable and load power are modelled through a given number of probability-weighted scenarios. In particular, reserve resources are initially booked in the base case and then activated in non-base scenarios through the re-dispatch process. Marginal pricing is used to derive energy, reserve, and power deviation prices. Next, we develop the associated settlement process and establish several market properties. The proposed pricing scheme establishes equivalence between thermal generators and renewable units by accounting for their uncertainties, including thermal generator outages and renewable power deviations
We study the optimal green hydrogen production and energy market participation of a renewable-colocated hydrogen producer (RCHP) that utilizes onsite renewable generation for both hydrogen production and grid services. Under deterministic and stochastic profit-maximization frameworks, we analyze RCHP's multiple market participation models and derive closed-form optimal scheduling policies that dynamically allocate renewable energy to hydrogen production and electricity export to the wholesale market. Analytical characterizations of the RCHP's operating profit and the optimal sizing of renewable and electrolyzer capacities are obtained. We use real-time renewable production and electricity price data from three independent system operators to assess impacts from market prices and environmental policies of renewable energy and green hydrogen subsidies on RCHP's profitability.
Renewable energy is important for achieving carbon neutrality goal. With the great success of Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT in automatic content generation, LLMs are playing an increasingly important role. However, there has not been a specially designed LLM for renewable energy. Meanwhile, there has not been any dataset of renewable energy for training LLMs. Therefore, this paper published the first open-source Renewable Energy Academic Paper (REAP) dataset for non-commercial LLM research of renewable energy. REAP dataset is collected through searching the title and abstract of 1,168,970 academic literatures from Web of Science. Based on REAP dataset, HouYi model, the first LLM for renewable energy, is developed through finetuning general LLMs. HouYi demonstrated powerful academic paper paragraph generation ability in renewable energy field. Experiments show that its ability to generate academic papers on renewable energy is comparable to ChatGPT, slightly outperforms Claude, ERNIE Bot and SparkDesk, and significantly outperforms open-source LLaMA-13B model.
This paper explores the integration of renewable energy sources into power systems, highlighting the resulting complexities such as variability and intermittency that challenge traditional power flow dynamics. We delve into innovative Optimal Power Flow (OPF) strategies designed to manage the unpredictability of renewable sources while ensuring economically viable and stable grid operations. A thorough review of state-of-the-art OPF algorithms, particularly those that enhance systems with substantial renewable integration, is presented. The discussion spans fundamental OPF principles, adaptations to renewable energies, and categorization of the latest advancements in areas such as energy uncertainty management, energy storage integration, linearization techniques application, and data-driven strategy utilization. Each sector's application benefits and limitations are critically analyzed. The paper concludes by pinpointing ongoing challenges and suggesting future research trajectories to foster adaptable and robust power system operations in the renewable-dominant energy era.
At present, electricity markets largely ignore the fact that renewable power producers impose significant externalities on non-renewable energy producers. This is because consumers are generally guaranteed electricity within certain load parameters. The intermittent nature of production by renewable energy producers implies that they rely on non-renewable producers so that the aggregate power delivered meets the promised quality of service. This implicit insurance provided by the non-renewable power sector to consumers is not currently priced and leads to an often ignored, hidden monetary transfer from non-renewable producers to renewable producers. As the fraction of energy supplied by renewable resources increases, these externalities also increase. In this paper, we quantify these externalities by developing the market clearing price of energy in the presence of renewable energy. We consider a day-ahead electricity market where renewable and non-renewable generators bid by proposing their asking price per unit of energy to an independent system operator (ISO). The ISO's problem is a multi-stage stochastic optimization problem to dispatch energy from each generator to minimize th
Serving the energy demand with renewable energy is hindered by its limited availability near load centres (i.e. places where the energy demand is high). To address this challenge, the concept of Remote Renewable Energy Hubs (RREH) emerges as a promising solution. RREHs are energy hubs located in areas with abundant renewable energy sources, such as sun in the Sahara Desert or wind in Greenland. In these hubs, renewable energy sources are used to synthetise energy molecules. To produce specific energy molecules, a tailored hub configuration must be designed, which means choosing a set of technologies that are interacting with each other as well as defining how they are integrated in their local environment. The plurality of technologies that may be employed in RREHs results in a large diversity of hubs. In order to characterize this diversity, we propose in this paper a taxonomy for accurately defining these hubs. This taxonomy allows to better describe and compare designs of hubs as well as to identify new ones. Thus, it may guide policymakers and engineers in hub design, contributing to cost efficiency and/or improving local integration.
The curtailment of renewable energy is more frequently observed as the renewable penetration levels are rising rapidly in modern power systems. It is a waste of free and green renewable energy and implies current power grids are unable to accommodate more renewable sources. One major reason is that higher power transmission capacity is required for higher renewable penetration level. Another major reason is the volatility of the renewable generation. The hydrogen mix or pure hydrogen pipeline can both transfer and store the energy in the form of hydrogen. However, its potential of accelerating renewable integration has not been investigated. In this paper, hydrogen pipeline networks, combined with power-to-hydrogen (P2H) and hydrogen-to-power (H2P) facilities, are organized to form a Hydrogen Energy Transmission and Conversion System (HETCS). We investigate the operation of power systems coupled with HETCS, and propose the day-ahead security-constrained unit commitment (SCUC) with HETCS. The SCUC simulation is conducted on a modified IEEE 24-bus power system with HETCS. Simulation results show HETCS can substantially reduce the renewable curtailment, CO2 emission, load payment and
This paper studies an optimal workload allocation problem for a network of renewable energy-powered edge clouds that serve users located across various geographical areas. Specifically, each edge cloud is furnished with both an on-site renewable energy generation unit and a battery storage unit. Due to the discrepancy in electricity pricing and the diverse temporal-spatial characteristics of renewable energy generation, how to optimally allocate workload to different edge clouds to minimize the total operating cost while maximizing renewable energy utilization is a crucial and challenging problem. To this end, we introduce and formulate an optimization-based framework designed for Edge Service Providers (ESPs) with the overarching goal of simultaneously reducing energy costs and environmental impacts through the integration of renewable energy sources and battery storage systems, all while maintaining essential quality-of-service standards. Numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and solution in maintaining service quality as well as reducing operational costs and emissions. Furthermore, the impacts of renewable energy generation and battery storage on
Optimal power flow (OPF) is an important tool for Independent System Operators (ISOs) to deal with the power generation management. With the increasing penetration of renewable energy into power grids, challenges arise in tackling the OPF problem due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy output. To address these challenges, we develop a multi-stage distributionally robust approach for the direct-current optimal power flow (DC-OPF) problem to minimize total generation cost under renewable energy uncertainty. In our model, we assume the renewable energy output follows an ambiguous distribution that can be characterized by a confidence set. By utilizing the revealed data sequentially, the proposed approach can provide a reliable and robust optimal OPF decision without restricting the renewable energy output distribution to any particular distribution class. The computational results also verify the effectiveness of our approach to reduce the conservativeness and meanwhile maintain the reliability.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a crucial instrument for streamlining processes in various industries, including electrical power systems, as a result of recent digitalization. Algorithms for artificial intelligence are data-driven models that are based on statistical learning theory and are used as a tool to take use of the data that the power system and its users generate. Initially, we perform a thorough literature analysis of artificial intelligence (AI) applications related to renewable energy (RE). Next, we present a thorough analysis of renewable energy factories and assess their suitability, along with a list of the most widely used and appropriate AI algorithms. Nine AI-based strategies are identified here to assist Renewable Energy (RE) in contemporary power systems. This survey paper comprises an extensive review of the several AI techniques used for renewable energy as well as a methodical analysis of the literature for the study of various intelligent system application domains across different disciplines of renewable energy. This literature review identifies the performance and outcomes of nine different research methods by assessing them, and it aims to dist
A significant fraction (5-15%) of renewable energy generated goes into waste in the grids around the world today due to oversupply issues and transmission constraints. Being able to predict when and where renewable curtailment occurs would improve renewable utilization. The core of this work is to enable the machine learning community to help decarbonize electricity grids by unlocking the potential of renewable energy through curtailment prediction.