Modelling 100% Renewable Electricity Grids

Contact: Andrew Blakers

Solar PV and wind can eliminate dependence on petrol, diesel, methane gas and coal, and thereby elimate three quarters of greenhouse emissions.

Electricity grids that are dominated by solar and wind will operate in a different way from grids that are supplied by fossil, nuclear and conventional hydro electricity. The dependence on the weather must also be planned for and alleviated. There are several simple and effective ways to do this, including:

wide geographical spread hugely reduces storage requirements by smoothing out local weather and demand
high voltage transmission lines
demand management to even out supply and demand, including by electrification of transport (EVs), air & water heating, and high temperature industrial heating
improving energy efficiency and productivity
energy storage (batteries, pumped hydro, thermal storage)

Modelling electricity grids using hour-by-hour historical weather and demand data over decades helps us understand how to create resilient and affordable future electricity systems.

The software that our research group has created can be accessed here. This can be reconfigured to fit any electricity system in the world (with appropriate attributions).

Modelling Publications by country and region#

Click here for a full list of group publications, and here for media publications.

Australia#

Andrew Blakers, Bin Lu, Matthew Stocks 2017, ‘100% renewable electricity in Australia’, Energy, vol. 133, 15 August 2017, pp. 471-482, ISSN 0360-5442, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.05.168. Download this paper (PDF, 3.4 MB)

Bin Lu, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks 2017, ‘90–100% renewable electricity for the South West Interconnected System of Western Australia’, Energy, vol. 122, 1 March 2017, pp. 663-674, ISSN 0360-5442, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2017.01.077. Download this paper (PDF, 3.3 MB)

Presentation by Andrew Blakers for the Asia Pacific Solar Research Conference, Melbourne, December 2017, Pumped hydro storage and 100% renewable electricity.

Presentation by Bin Lu for the Asia Pacific Solar Research Conference, Melbourne, December 2017, Modelling 100% renewables in South Australia.

Anna Nadolny, Cheng Cheng, Bin Lu, Andrew Blakers, and Matthew Stocks, 2022, ‘Fully electrified land transport in 100% renewable electricity networks dominated by variable generation’, Renewable Energy, vol. 182, pp 562-577, ISSN 0960-1481, doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.10.039.

Bin Lu, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, Cheng Cheng, Anna Nadolny, 2021, ‘A zero-carbon, reliable and affordable energy future in Australia’, Energy, vol. 220, 119678, ISSN 0360-5442, Apr. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.119678.

Lucy Roberts, Bin Lu, Kylie Catchpole, 2022, ‘Effect of La Niña weather conditions on operation of a future 100% renewable grid in Australia’, 2022 IEEE PES Innovative Smart Grid Technologies - Asia (ISGT Asia), Singapore, Singapore, 2022, pp. 116-119, doi: 10.1109/ISGTAsia54193.2022.10003637.

ASEAN#

Andrew Blakers, 21^st August 2013,) The north’s future is electrifying: powering Asia with renewables The Conversation.

Bin Lu, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, Thang Nam Do, 2021, ‘Low-cost, low-emission 100% renewable electricity in Southeast Asia supported by pumped hydro storage’, Energy, vol. 236, 121387, ISSN 0360-5442, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.121387.

Timothy Weber, Andrew Blakers, David Firnando Silalahi, Kylie Catchpole and Anna Nadolny, ‘Grids dominated by solar and pumped hydro in wind-constrained sunbelt countries’, Energy Conversion and Management, Volume 308, 15 May 2024, 118354, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0196890424002954

Indonesia#

Silalahi, D.F.; Blakers, A.; Cheng, C. ‘100% Renewable Electricity in Indonesia’, Energies 2024, 17, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010003

David Firnando Silalahi, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, Bin Lu, Cheng Cheng and Liam Hayes, 2021, ‘Indonesia’s Vast Solar Energy Potential’, Energies, 14(17), 5424, doi: 10.3390/en14175424.

David Firnando Silalahi, 22^nd April 2020, Why solar energy can help Indonesia attain 100% green electricity by 2050, The Conversation.

Andrew Blakers, Bin Lu and Matthew Stocks, 3^rd May 2018, Indonesia miliki banyak tempat penyimpanan energi hidro untuk sokong 100% listrik terbarukan, The Conversation.

Andrew Blakers, Bin Lu and Matthew Stocks, 3^rd May 2018, Indonesia has far more than enough pumped hydro storage sites to support a 100% renewable electricity grid, The Conversation.

Japan#

Cheng Cheng, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, and Bin Lu, 2022, ‘100% renewable energy in Japan’, Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 255, 115299, ISSN 0196-8904, doi: 10.1016/j.enconman.2022.115299.

Bolivia#

Cheng Cheng, Natalia Pereira Gutierrez, Andrew Blakers, and Matthew Stocks, 2022, ‘GIS-based solar and wind resource assessment and least-cost 100 % renewable electricity modelling for Bolivia’, Energy for Sustainable Development, Volume 69, August 2022, Pages 134-149, doi: 10.1016/j.esd.2022.06.008.

East Asia#

Cheng Cheng, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, Bin Lu, 2019, ‘Pumped hydro energy storage and 100 % renewable electricity for East Asia’, Global Energy Interconnection, vol. 2, no. 5, pp. 386-392, Oct. 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.gloei.2019.11.013.

Modelling Publications by year#

2024#

Silalahi, D.F.; Blakers, A.; Cheng, C. ‘100% Renewable Electricity in Indonesia’, Energies 2024, 17, 3. https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010003

2022#

2021#

David Firnando Silalahi, Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, Bin Lu, Cheng Cheng and Liam Hayes, 2021, ‘Indonesia’s Vast Solar Energy Potential’, Energies, 14(17), 5424, doi: 10.3390/en14175424.

Andrew Blakers, Matthew Stocks, Bin Lu, Cheng Cheng, 2021, ‘The observed cost of high penetration solar and wind electricity’, Energy, vol. 233, 121150, ISSN 0360-5442, Oct. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.121150.

Liam Hayes, Matthew Stocks Andrew Blakers, 2021, ‘Accurate long-term power generation model for offshore wind farms in Europe using ERA5 reanalysis’, Energy, vol. 229, 120603, ISSN 0360-5442, Aug. 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120603.

2019#

2018#

Presentation by Andrew Blakers for the World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Hawaii, June 2018, Pumped hydro storage and 100% renewable electricity.

2017#

Presentation by Andrew Blakers for the Asia Pacific Solar Research Conference, Melbourne, December 2017, Pumped hydro storage and 100% renewable electricity.

Presentation by Bin Lu for the Asia Pacific Solar Research Conference, Melbourne, December 2017, Modelling 100% renewables in South Australia.