Reducing wind power curtailment in China: comparing the roles of coal power flexibility and improved dispatch

Renewable energy curtailment is a critical issue in China, impeding the country’s transition to clean energy and its ability to meet its climate goals. This paper analyzes the impacts of more flexible coal-fired power generation and improved power dispatch towards reducing wind power curtailment. A unit commitment model for power dispatch is used to conduct the analysis, with different scenarios demonstrating the relative impacts of more flexible coal-fired generation and improved power dispatch. Overall, while we find both options are effective in reducing wind power curtailment, we find that improved power dispatch is more effective: (1) the effect of ramping down coal-fired generators to reduce wind power curtailment lessens as the minimum output of coal-fired generation is decreased; and (2) as a result, at higher wind capacity levels, wind curtailment is much more significantly reduced with improved power dispatch than with decreased minimum output of coal-fired generation.

Key policy insights

• China should emphasize both coal power flexibility and dispatch in its policies to minimize renewable power curtailment and promote clean energy transition.

• China should accelerate the process of implementing spot market and marginal cost-based economic dispatch, while making incremental improvements to the existing equal share dispatch in places not ready for spot market.

• A key step in improving of dispatch is incorporating renewable power forecasts into the unit commitment process and updating the daily unit commitment based on the latest forecast result.

• China should expand the coal power flexibility retrofit programme and promote the further development of the ancillary service market to encourage more flexibility from coal-fired generation.

     

Carbon reduction, 'the public' and renewable energy: engaging with socio-technical configurations

In the context of challenging targets for renewable energy generation, this paper draws out social implications of moves towards low carbon energy systems. As renewable energy develops as a heterogeneous category, many potential forms of social relation between 'publics' and technologies are emerging. Utilising perspectives from science and technology studies, we outline five modes in which renewable energy has been implemented in the UK and how these involve different configurations of technology and social organisation. We argue that a multiplicity of roles for 'the public' are implicated across this increasingly complex landscape, cutting across established categories and raising questions of meaning, differentiation, interrelation and access. Policy assumptions and conceptions are questioned, highlighting that dominant characterisations of public roles have been part of a concentration on particular socio-technical pathways to the exclusion of others.     

山区资源可持续利用模型

人和自然资源构成了山区人地系统的一个子系统,且是研究后者的很理想的切入点.在人地协同论的基础上,建立了人-资源可持续利用模型.     

Rights and ownership in sea country: implications of marine renewable energy for indigenous and local communities

The adoption of UN Convention of the Law of the Sea in 1982 created optimism for indigenous peoples and marginalised coastal communities that they may (re)gain control of, or improve access to, marine resources. However concerns were also raised that opening the seas to industrial development might create threats for traditional users of the sea. Twenty-five years later the potential enclosure of large areas of coastal seas to marine renewable energy development is reigniting debates about marine governance, access and control over marine resources. Case studies in Scotland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia reveal a dynamic tension between: an economic development ‘blue growth’ agenda requiring the creation of private rights in the sea; and socio-political drivers which seek to address historic injustices and increase access to natural resources by indigenous and marginalised coastal communities. As yet there is little evidence of this tension being adequately addressed by emerging institutional frameworks for managing marine resources.     

海洋能源获取、传输与管理综述

海洋能源获取、传输与管理是实现海洋透明化的关键技术。以能源获取的方式进行分类调研,分析探讨国内外海洋能源的获取、传输与能源管理方法,以及各个方式的优缺点,并对能源获取、传输与管理进行核心技术分解,对比我国研究现状得出各个技术与国外现有差距,预测我国在该技术领域的未来发展趋势。     

Prospect of Lithium Resources Supply and Demand

正1 Introduction The conflict between resources and the environment has been increasingly outstanding as the population,economy and society around the globe have developed rapidly since the 21st century.An important challenge that the human     

The Key Layout of UK Marine Science and Technology Plans and Some Implications for China

In this paper, we have analysed the major marine research strategies, programs and projects and the overall layout on marine research of the United Kingdom in recent years and found several characteristics: The United Kingdom increased emphasis on the national top-level design of marine research; The marine research infrastructures of the United Kingdom will be given long-term support in the future; Priority areas on marine research in the future will be determine and identified according to the national science and technology status and national needs of national economy; The United Kingdom will focus on ocean acidification, marine renewable energy development and coastal hazards research in the future. Then we gave out some recommendations on our courtry’ development on marine science and technology: Establishing a long-term national marine science and technology strategic plan; strengthening the investment in the important marine research infrastructure; setting several reasonable research priorities according to China’s national strategic needs.     

Role of renewable energy in climate mitigation: a synthesis of recent scenarios

The role of renewable energy in climate change mitigation is explored through a review of 162 recent medium- to long-term scenarios from 15 large-scale, energy-economic and integrated assessment models. The current state of knowledge from this community is assessed and its implications drawn for the strategic context in which policymakers and other decision-makers might consider renewable energy. The scenario set is distinguished from previous ones in that it contains more detailed information on renewable deployment levels. All the scenarios in this study were published during or after 2006. Within the context of a large-scale assessment, the analysis is guided primarily by four questions. What sorts of future levels of renewable energy deployment are consistent with different CO₂ concentration goals? Which classes of renewable energy will be the most prominent energy producers and how quickly might they expand production? Where might an expansion in renewable energy occur? What is the linkage between the costs of mitigation and an expansion of renewable energy?     

中国跨境风电项目的建设模式、梯度转移及减排潜力研究

作为“一带一路”倡议的样板工程和旗舰项目,中巴经济走廊中的风电项目建设已经初现规模。中国在巴基斯坦的工程建设中,风电优先项目涉及的项目金额约为6.47亿元,运营期累计发电量可以达到近180亿千瓦时,可累计减少二氧化碳排放13.90兆吨。伴随跨境风电项目的梯度转移,中国可再生能源项目落地并网取决于东道国的政策制度安排、建设运营模式、设备供应体系以及电价收购协议等。本研究有助于协助沿线国家完善能源政策制度、加快清洁电力发展、应对气候变化、落实碳减排承诺,为绿色“一带一路”建设中可再生能源项目的推广提供借鉴。     

Marine renewable energy and public rights

Marine renewable energy is likely to be an important part of UK energy policy over the next decades. A start has already been made, but to generate power on a significant scale requires the use of vast areas of ocean, on which there are competing claims. Legislation, and in particular the Energy Act 2004, goes a long way towards giving developers the legal infrastructure they need, to invest with confidence. But it is far from perfect, in dealing with important competing rights. This article has a narrow (but important) focus. It assumes that there are no problems over jurisdiction or international law. It is concerned principally with the rights of UK citizens. The issue is about reconciling the generation of large-scale marine renewable energy with other legitimate uses of the sea, and in particular fishing and navigation rights.