IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2017 - 14

guest editorial

Barry Mather and Guohui Yuan

on the sunny side
integrating solar energy at increasing rates

Since the laSt iSSue of IEEE
Power & Energy Magazine that focused
on distributed energy resources (DeRs),
which was the March/april 2015 issue,
the amount of installed DeRs has approximately doubled. Solar photovoltaic (PV) systems account for the super
majority of new DeRs in the united
States as well as worldwide. in the
united States, total PV installations
have reached just under 32 GW, and
solar now supplies 1% of the electricity
demand. Worldwide, over 320 GW of
PV systems have been installed. Solar
represents about one-third of new electrical generating capacity installed in
the united States. considerable reductions in the cost of PV solar systems
have enabled this level of deployment.
Since its launch in 2011, the u.S. Department of energy's SunShot initiative
has focused on major cost reductions
of solar technologies through research
and innovations to make solar generation resources more competitive. in just
five years, the SunShot initiative and the
solar industry have achieved more than
90% of the established 2020 goal to reduce the levelized-cost of utility-scale solar
PV electricity to uS$0.06 per kilowatthour (kWh) without subsidies. utility-scale solar electricity costs now average uS$0.07/kWh. in november 2016,
the SunShot initiative announced new
targets to reduce the cost of utility-scale
solar by an additional 50% between
2020 and 2030 to reach uS$0.03/kWh.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPE.2016.2637161
Date of publication: 1 March 2017

ieee power & energy magazine

Models suggest that achieving the 2030
goals along with low-cost storage could
enable solar to supply nearly 50% of u.S.
electricity by 2050.
in addition to the impressive continued
growth of PVs, the number of PV systems being installed at the distribution level remains high, even with the
installation of 300-MW-sized PV plants
connected directly to the transmission system. Working closely with the
industry and utilities,
the SunShot initiative
most recently launched
two research programs:
ShineS, focusing on
PVs plus storage solutions, and eneRGiSe,
concentrating on highly
scalable planning and
operation solutions to
enable high PV penetration. in the united
States, recent estimates
of the PV share connected to the distribution system versus the
transmission system
yielded that 50-60% is
distribution connected.
the potential for a lower cost of interconnection, favorable proximity to load, and a
continuing policy support for PV DeRs
continue to drive the overall penetration
of PVs on many distribution circuits
and systems ever higher.
to address the technical challenges
associated with interconnecting and
integrating hundreds of gigawatts of

solar power onto the electricity grid,
safely and reliably, the SunShot initiative funds research, development, and
demonstration projects to improve interconnection processes, optimize system
planning, and manage solar variability and uncertainty during operations.
tremendous progress has been made
in the areas of solar forecasting, hosting capacity analysis, smart inverters, and solar plus storage. further
research efforts are underway to develop scalable real-time operation
solutions to allow very
high-level solar penetrations. a critical part of
the research is the development of large-scale
computer and hardwarein-the-loop simulations
with thousands to millions of nodes operating
under close to real-world
conditions. along with
advancements in energy
storage, the smart grid,
electric vehicles, smart
buildings, and other renewable technologies,
solar holds the potential
of transforming power
systems to provide cleaner electricity,
lower costs, and greater grid reliability
and resiliency.
this issue of IEEE Power & Energy
Magazine is the fifth in a biennial series
that addresses issues with integrating DeRs into the electric grid. Since the
first issue, which was the May/June 2009

This issue of
IEEE Power
& Energy
Magazine is
the fifth in a
biennial series
that addresses
issues with
integrating
DERs into the
electric grid.

march/april 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - March/April 2017