Sandia
National Laboratories and SunPower Corp. recently formalized an
agreement to conduct research on integrating large-scale photovoltaic
(PV) systems into the grid. By signing a Cooperative Research and
Development Agreement (CRADA), the organizations will leverage
approximately $1 million of combined U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and
SunPower funding. Additionally, a consortium led by SunPower, which
includes Sandia as a partner, was recently awarded a $1 million grant
from the California Solar Initiative (CSI) to improve modeling of
high-penetration PV systems.
"This
partnership will enable Sandia and SunPower to capitalize on their
respective strengths and bring together PV modeling and analysis
expertise with extensive system data to answer many of the urgent
questions facing utility companies and their customers who are turning
to clean, solar energy resources," said Terry Michalske, director of
Energy and Security Systems at Sandia.
"As
an experienced leader in developing and delivering high-efficiency
solar cells and systems, SunPower is pleased to partner with Sandia
Labs, an expert in predicting PV output and modeling," said Jack
Peurach, vice president of advanced product development for SunPower.
"I'm confident that our collaboration will lead to innovative technology
solutions for our utility customers today and in the future."
Historically,
the use of PV systems has contributed less than 1 percent of global
generation capacity, and has had only minimal impact to the grid.
Decreasing costs, state and federal incentives and increased interest in
clean energy sources are helping to accelerate the use of solar power.
According
to a recent report published by the Solar Electric Industries
Association, the solar industry grew in 2009 despite economic concerns.
The total U.S. solar electric capacity from PV and concentrated solar
power (CSP) technologies exceeded 2,000 MW, which is enough to serve
more than 350,000 homes.
However,
solar power, like other alternative energy sources, provides a varying
amount of electricity. As such sources are increasingly added to the
grid, utility companies must find a way to ensure that the power system
continues to operate reliably and cost-effectively, whether the sun is
shining or not. This is a new challenge for many utility systems
operators.
"A
question worth asking is: what are the possible impacts of connecting
very large PV systems or a lot of smaller, distributed PV systems on the
grid, and what are the solutions for mitigating these impacts? It's not
just a rhetorical question anymore," said Sandia photovoltaic systems
researcher Abraham Ellis. "It is a question that many utility companies
are grappling with right now. Part of the problem is that we lack
specialized tools and data to properly assess the impact on the grid and
evaluate mitigation alternatives. This partnership will help address
those challenges."
Through
the CRADA and the CSI grant, Sandia and SunPower Corp. are
well-positioned to create better grid-integration simulation models and
develop new tools to better understand how utility power systems are
affected by the variability of solar generation. Both fields are
relatively new, but both organizations will draw on their extensive
expertise in the field of PV power generation.
Sandia
and SunPower have been working through Sandia's CRADA since February
and have already started producing new models and simulation tools. The
results will soon be disseminated through joint publications. The
collaboration between Sandia and SunPower is expected to achieve
significant results over the next two years.
DOE/Sandia National Laboratories
