Economics of Wind and Solar Variability

Wind farm at dawn

Seminar Room, LAB-14
Carlton Connect Initiative
700 Swanston St

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Caitlin McGrane

caitlin.mcgrane@unimelb.edu.au

T: +61 3 9035 9458


Is wind power to be blamed for last week's South Australian blackout?

As generation costs of wind and solar decrease into the range of fossil fuelled power, the system impacts of variability (intermittency) become crucial. With increasing shares of wind and solar PV, variability imposes technical challenges and additional costs to the energy system that can be in the same order of magnitude as generation costs. Falko discusses the most important drivers of these system costs, their implications and the role of flexibility options such as transmission grids, short- and long-term storage and demand response, mainly from an economic perspective.

The seminar will be recorded and will be available for download after the event.

About the speaker

Dr Falko Ueckerdt is a postdoctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He conducts research and policy advice in the field of energy system planning, in particular wind and solar power integration and modelling of climate mitigation scenarios. He is part of the IEA advisory group on grid integration of variable renewables. Previously, Falko worked in energy planning for the International Renewable Energy Agency and in e-mobility for the Boston Consulting Group. He has been a contributing author to the Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation of the IPCC and recently was a postdoctoral research scholar at the Hanley Sustainability Institute of the University of Dayton.

This event is hosted by the Australian-German Climate and Energy College.

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