100% renewable energy by 2020. Today's date is Wednesday, November 6th, 2013. That is 2,239 days from now. It is a remarkable initiative, but is it also insurmountable?
Currently the most notable project on the island is the 30MW Wind farm in the south completed a few years ago. This 30MW facility covers roughly 18% of the annual electricity consumption by the 100,000 people that call Aruba home. Aruba needs about 135MW more to satisfy their ambitious target. Approximately 5MW of clean energy has to hit the grid every quarter until 2020. The US has added over a GW of solar power YTD. Just solar. Aruba's target is not that ambitious, right?
Wrong. In the US solar accounts for a very small sliver of the energy pie. Wind is a similar story. When the sun shines and the wind blows, the US electrical grids will eat that power up without a burp. Aruba will be alone, trailblazing renewable penetration levels that no national grid has ever seen. Issues such as curtailment, intermittency of power, and voltage fluctuations will be big issues for WEB, Aruba's water and electricity utility.
The good news is they realize this and are up for the challenge. A closer look at 100% Clean by 2020 reveals that 50% will be allocated for solar and wind, while the other 50% will be devoted to biofuels which can help provide base load electrical demand while the wind is not blowing or its night time.
On top of this, Aruba is investing in some innovative storage technologies to address the intermittency issues with high renewable penetration. Hydrostor, a company based in Toronto, recently announced at Green Aruba, just one day prior to CREF 2013, they would be developing an underwater electrical storage facility. Essentially, power flows into giant underwater balloons and is stored as potential energy. The process is over 90% efficient. Perhaps the most interesting point is the power is only stored between 4-6 hours. That is all the time needed to stabilize the flow of electricity.
There are still challenges in the market. An unclear interconnection policy is crippling the distributed generation market. Net Billing is great and a "grid upkeep fee" for IPPs is an innovative way to keep the utility happy, but having a consistent and clear procurement process is actually the first step in creating a healthy renewable market. It is like not having your cake, but being able to eat it. Fortunately, the political pressure from self inflicted aggressive targets should entice the establishment of a more streamlined process very soon.
It is not often that a Small Island Developing State (SIDS), let alone a cooperating utility, leads the way in our green energy revolution. Aruba's clean technology mix and grid integration will set a standard for other countries in the region looking to achieve similar targets, but it will also help utilities in larger countries have a model to allow more renewable capacity to come online.
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