Environmental sustainability of Southwestern US utility-scale photovoltaic expansion under changing climate conditions

美国西南部公用事业规模光伏发电扩张在不断变化的气候条件下的环境可持续性

• 批准号: 1940781
• 负责人: Ashley Broadbent
• 金额: $ 29.84万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-01-15 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1940781&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Environmental; sustainability; Southwestern; US; utility

Photovoltaic (PV) systems can have a local air temperature warming effect that can impact their efficiency and may further exacerbate the warming of the local environment. Interactions between PV, land, and the atmosphere is further complicated by climate changes. The potential for widespread PV deployment to act as a reliable source of renewable energy must therefore be evaluated in a modeling framework that can accurately characterize future regional-scale climatic conditions, faithfully represent relevant PV-land-atmosphere interactions, and assess electricity production. This project targets accurate and robust assessment of climatic effects associated with future deployment of PV systems. The research will couple a PV surface energy balance model that has been developed and extensively evaluated offline by the research team to the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) climate prediction system (referred to as WRF-SolarPV). Through a climate-based application of WRF-SolarPV that accounts for spatially explicit PV deployment extent and configuration, the research team will generate maps of PV deployment “sweet spots” across the Southwestern US, highlighting locations with high levels of sustained solar irradiance that align with suitably low PV module temperatures under a future climate. Specifically, the research will address how future climate may impact the solar resource across the southwestern United States, and what hydro-climatic implications associated with future PV electricity generation can be anticipated. Through an explicit accounting of electricity generation, the research will address key concerns associated with reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental sustainability. The framework to be developed will enable advancements in numerical modeling of energy systems via examination of the regional characteristics of current and future PV-land-atmosphere interactions, including feedbacks among GHG warming, local-hydro-climates, and electricity production in a dynamically interacting system. The research team will develop the open-source state-of-the science tool WRF-SolarPV to be broadly disseminated to the larger climate modeling, engineering and energy communities through the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which supports, maintains and disseminates the WRF system for over 39,000 users in over 160 countries. Development and provision of such a tool is anticipated to be of considerable value to stakeholders considering transition to PV as a renewable source of energy but lacking the assessment tools to do so. The project will also facilitate participation and mentoring of high school students, through an educational collaboration with local public charter schools that have participated in summer intern programs with the research team in the past.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

光伏（PV）系统可以具有局部温度，从而进一步加剧了LO的变暖。可靠的可靠性在e级气候条件下评估，忠实地代表了PV-Land-aposphere相互作用，并评估了与Futh Futh Futh Futh Futh Futhure Futhure Futhure Futhure Futhure Futh futh futh futhe een e een the WeatherChe Offline the Weatherch coptracts a argets的准确评估和预测（WRF）气候预测系统D作为WRF-SolarPV）。西南美国，在未来气候下，具有高水平的太阳能辐照度的位置可能会影响美国的太阳能资源。预期的。 ，在疾病的系统中，研究团队将开发开源的科学工具WRF-SolarPV，将广泛传播到更大的气候建模，工程学，国家大气中心在160多个国家 /地区的开发中，为39,000多名用户提供了WRF系统。与当地学校一起进行了夏季实习计划，以反映了NSF'Stututory Mission，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响标准。