In this online engineering PDH course, a study is presented showing a cost effective way of replacing coal generation in Texas by using only currently planned wind and solar energy generation projects. The key is to site the projects to take advantage of the complementary timing of solar and wind in the state—in the west, sunshine peaks midday while wind peaks overnight; near the coast, wind peaks on summer evenings. The study shows that not all of the currently planned projects would be needed; a subset of projects sited through complementary timing would be sufficient to replace most coal generation in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas system, leaving ten percent of coal power output to be covered by natural gas and nuclear power.

 

This course teaches the following specific knowledge and skills:

 

• Modelling the output of wind and solar projects 

• Knowing how to estimate the costs of wind and solar projects

• Understanding how to optimize a least-cost set of projects

• Recognizing complementary timing of solar and wind phenomena in a region

• Understanding the concept of “slack” in output of coal plants