TY - JOUR
T1 - The Future of Low-Carbon Electricity
AU - Greenblatt, Jeffery B.
AU - Brown, Nicholas R.
AU - Slaybaugh, Rachel
AU - Wilks, Theresa
AU - Stewart, Emma
AU - McCoy, Sean T.
N1 - Funding Information:
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are reservoirs engineered to create energy from hot dry rock that otherwise lacks the water and/or permeability to be utilized. EGS has the potential to access geothermal resources at greater depth and could add >100 GW of capacity in the United States (29). A key enabling technology is hydraulic fracturing to increase permeability (30), similar to that used to produce unconventional natural gas. Strongly supported by the DOE, the technology is still at a research and development (R&D) stage, with goals to demonstrate a 5 MW system by 2020, and a cost-reduction pathway from ∼240 to ∼60 USD/MWh by 2030 (30).
Funding Information:
We thank the following people from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for contributing to this article: Ryan Wiser, Naïm Darghouth, Andrew Satchwell, Galen Barbose, Joachim Seel, and Max Wei (Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division), Vince Battaglia (Energy Storage and Distributed Resources Division), and Curtis Oldenburg (Energy Geosciences Division). J.B.G. was supported under US Department of Energy contract number DE-AC02–05CH11231. This publication is associated with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report number LBNL-1007260 and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Information Management system number LLNL-JRNL-716422.
PY - 2017/10/17
Y1 - 2017/10/17
N2 - We review future global demand for electricity and major technologies positioned to supply it with minimal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: renewables (wind, solar, water, geothermal, and biomass), nuclear fission, and fossil power with CO2 capture and sequestration. We discuss two breakthrough technologies (space solar power and nuclear fusion) as exciting but uncertain additional options for low-net GHG emissions (i.e., low-carbon) electricity generation. In addition, we discuss grid integration technologies (monitoring and forecasting of transmission and distribution systems, demand-side load management, energy storage, and load balancing with low-carbon fuel substitutes). For each topic, recent historical trends and future prospects are reviewed, along with technical challenges, costs, and other issues as appropriate. Although no technology represents an ideal solution, their strengths can be enhanced by deployment in combination, along with grid integration that forms a critical set of enabling technologies to assure a reliable and robust future low-carbon electricity system.
AB - We review future global demand for electricity and major technologies positioned to supply it with minimal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions: renewables (wind, solar, water, geothermal, and biomass), nuclear fission, and fossil power with CO2 capture and sequestration. We discuss two breakthrough technologies (space solar power and nuclear fusion) as exciting but uncertain additional options for low-net GHG emissions (i.e., low-carbon) electricity generation. In addition, we discuss grid integration technologies (monitoring and forecasting of transmission and distribution systems, demand-side load management, energy storage, and load balancing with low-carbon fuel substitutes). For each topic, recent historical trends and future prospects are reviewed, along with technical challenges, costs, and other issues as appropriate. Although no technology represents an ideal solution, their strengths can be enhanced by deployment in combination, along with grid integration that forms a critical set of enabling technologies to assure a reliable and robust future low-carbon electricity system.
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U2 - 10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-061138
DO - 10.1146/annurev-environ-102016-061138
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85031735469
VL - 42
SP - 289
EP - 316
JO - Annual Review of Environment and Resources
JF - Annual Review of Environment and Resources
SN - 1543-5938
ER -