Volts Assembling diverse resources into super-powered "energy parks"
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Jan 15, 2025 In this conversation, Eric Gimon, lead author on energy parks, shares his insights on large-scale microgrids that integrate renewable sources, storage, and industrial loads. They discuss how these energy parks can accelerate clean energy adoption and offer new economic prospects, while also tackling regulatory challenges. Gimon highlights the unique transformations of retired coal plants into renewable hubs and the complexities of powering data centers with nuclear energy. The discussion sheds light on the financial dynamics and the importance of collaboration in overcoming interconnection hurdles.
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Energy Park Benefits
- Energy parks, large microgrids connected to transmission systems, offer unique benefits.
- These include shared equipment, tax advantages, and new grid management capabilities.
Shared Equipment Examples
- Solar-plus-battery setups are simple energy parks where inverters can be shared, saving costs.
- The Wheat Ridge project in Oregon demonstrates sharing at a larger scale with a shared substation.
New Abilities of Energy Parks
- Combining resources like solar, wind, geothermal, and thermal batteries creates a dispatchable energy source.
- This flexible setup allows energy parks to both export excess power and absorb grid power.