This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The objective of this award is to perform the fundamental research necessary to advance the electric power grid integration of diverse variable renewable energy resources. The approach is separated into three tasks: first, building the tools to describe and analyze variable renewable energy resources; second, using those tools to model how variable renewable resources interact with the electric power grid and discover barriers to high penetration; third, taking the knowledge gained from the previous tasks and research means of removing barriers to high grid-penetration of variable renewable resources. Intellectual Merit: This research is on the cutting edge of the challenge of matching a well-established, dispatchable-resource, fossil fuel paradigm to a new, flexible, variable renewable power generation paradigm. The challenges and solutions to integrating large amounts of variable sources to the grid are not well understood. This project performs the fundamental research necessary to understand these limitations and also explores and creates novel, effective methods for removing these limitations. Broader Impacts: This research will impact the energy systems field by discovering the advantages and challenges that lie within large-scale renewable energy conversion and electric power generation. The broader impacts also extend to the larger society, as increasing renewable energy conversion and electric power generation will allow the eventual displacement of fossil fuel based electric power generation. The engine of this project will be the research students, who will gain a keen understanding of the importance of renewables. The education and outreach components of this research will disseminate information to leading educators through faculty workshops. The public will be served through a series of free short courses and lectures on energy issues.
