Draft Candidate Study Areas

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Draft Candidate Study Areas

• Ryan Pletka, BV

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Agenda

• What is a Candidate Study Area?
• What is a Renewable Energy Zone?
• Recommended Candidate Study Areas

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Definitions

• Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) Concentration of
  renewable energy resources that shares
  transmission constraints
• Candidate Study Areas (CSA) Broad regions where
  REZs are likely to occur

Purpose of identifying CSAs is to focus our
efforts on areas most likely to be promising for
REZs
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Generalized ZITA Plan to Get to REZ Identification
All RenewableResources
Preliminary ScreeningCriteria
CandidateStudyAreas
Proposed REZ Identification
Environ- mental and Other Land Exclusions
Non-REZ Resources
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Working Zone Assumptions

• While WREZ intends to be comprehensive, focus is
  on large transmission needs (e.g., 500 kV)
• Focus of analysis will be on REZ resources
• (Doesnt mean that it is bad to be left out)
• Hydro, biomass, undiscovered geothermal more
  likely to support larger zones, rather than be
  stand-alone
• REZs need to be relatively small in geographic
  size, unlike CSAs

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CSA Example
Western Interconnection
Hypothetical, for example only
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Hypothetical Raw Resource
Hypothetical, for example only
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Preliminary CSA Criteria Applied
Hypothetical, for example only
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Small Potential Areas Removed
Hypothetical, for example only
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Candidate Study Areas Identified
Hypothetical, for example only
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From CSAs to REZs
Hypothetical, for example only
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Hypothetical, for example only
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Nevada
California
Hypothetical, for example only
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Nevada
California
Hypothetical, for example only
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Nevada
California
Hypothetical, for example only
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Nevada
California
Hypothetical, for example only
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Nevada
California
Hypothetical, for example only
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Recommended Candidate Study Areas
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Known Data Needs

• Canada Some Canadian resource data are still
  missing.
• Wind available by November 1st
• Geothermal available by November 1st
• Environmental and Land Exclusions are preliminary
• Used standard NREL exclusions to calculate
  resource density and reduce CSA areas
• NREL exclusions account for
• National parks, wilderness areas, some national
  forest and military areas, wetlands, other
  federal lands unavailable for development
• State and private lands classified as GAP 1 or 2
• Urban areas, airports, water bodies
• Final EL exclusions/avoids will be used to
  narrow CSAs to REZs

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In-state vs. Interstate CSAs

• Interstate CSAs potentially export competitive
  renewable energy across state lines
• In-state CSAs most likely only locally
  competitive resources

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gt1500 MW class 5 wind and gt1500 MW class 4 wind
Load centers
gt1500 MW class 4 wind
NOTE FOR EXAMPLE ONLY

• MT contains areas with class 4 and areas with
  class 5 wind

WA OR also contain areas with class 4 wind,
closer to the load centers
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gt1500 MW class 5 wind
Load centers
gt1500 MW class 4 wind
NOTE FOR EXAMPLE ONLY
MTs interstate CSA will only contain wind class
5 and better wind
OR WAs class 4 wind will likely be developed
for interstate transmission
MTs class 4 wind will not, because there is
equally good wind closer to load centers
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Recommended minimum wind class screens for each
region
State has lower minimum wind class in some
local regions
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Each states solar CSA includes only the best
solar resource in that state

• Additional DNI screens were applied to each
  region to filter for that states best solar
  resource

Lower quality solar may supplement other
resources in some regions
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Canadian wind data sources have been identified

• The BC provincial government is completing a
  mesoscale study of wind resource potential this
  month
• NREL is currently processing the appropriate
  Canadian Wind Atlas data for BC and AB
• The Canadian Wind Energy Association has provided
  maps of planned development for Southeastern
  Alberta to support these data
• The Alberta Electric System Operator has provided
  generator queue data to support these data

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Canadian geothermal data sources have been
identified

• Maps analogous to the USGSs geothermal
  favorability maps have been identified at the
  following organizations
• British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and
  Petroleum
• Alberta Energy Research Institute
• Once obtained and processed, these maps will
  serve as maps of undiscovered conventional
  geothermal potential in AB and BC