Modern Grid Systems: how to incorporate renewables in a sustainable way?
ABB will be present at the Smart Grids Europe and Transmission & Distribution Europe Conferences. These conferences and a fair will be organized in the Amsterdam Passenger terminal. The event is held for three days (29 – 31 march 2010). Wessel Bakker, Marketing Manager at ABB, will give presenation a.m. subject on March 29th starting at 16.20 at the vendor showcase. Please find a summary of this presenatation below.
Today society faces huge challenges to achieve the renewable targets. The best sites for renewable energy production with highest yield are often remote to existing grids. Renewable energy sources have intermittent supply characteristics. So besides the renewables themselves another challenge is created: how to incorporate these renewables in a stable, sustainable and economically feasible way?
ABB is technology leader in transmission and distribution and offers a broad range of solutions to facilitate the integration of large scale renewables. Modern HVDC technologies facilitate the connection and power transmission of large scale renewable production e.g. large off shore wind and large scale solar power.
Maximum revenues and energy efficiency can be created by placing renewables at locations with highest yields e.g. in Europe off shore wind farms far off shore in the North Sea (maximum wind) and solar power plants far south in Mediterranean or North African area (maximum sun). The extra yield by far offsets the losses in the connection.
Long distance HVDC interconnectors also contribute to balancing and offsetting the intermittent characteristics of renewables by connecting the characteristics of these renewables. Hydro power secures immediate stand-by power or buffering capacity to off balance intermittence in a sustainable minimizing the demand for conventional stand-by power.
But that’s not all. Governmental and public concerns demand for environmentally friendly HV connections with minimum footprint. Here too ABB offers HVDC Light as optimum solution with lowest impact on natural resources and lowest visual impact by invisible cable connections both offshore and inland within existing grids.