Huy Nguyen
Research Mentor(s): Sunny Chen
Department or Program: ECE
Authors: Huy Nguyen, Sunny Chen (PhD Candidate), Johanna L. Mathieu (Associate Professor)
Session: Session 1: 12:00pm-12:50pm
Poster: 39
Abstract
Ensuring grid reliability with increasing amounts of renewable energy sources (such as solar and wind) presents a significant challenge due to their variable nature. Existing research on renewable complementarity, which we define as less- or anti-correlated renewable power production between different sites or times, suggests that solar and wind resources can somewhat offset each other’s variability to reduce aggregate variation. While research on complementarity is well-established in some regions, it has not been sufficiently explored in Michigan. This project aims to fill this gap by calculating statistical correlation metrics for different regions within Michigan. To achieve this, we first develop a software pipeline to collect and analyze weather data from various sites across Michigan from databases provided by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). We use this data to understand power generation patterns, variation in output, and the correlation between solar and wind power at different locations. Preliminary results indicate that we now have a robust method for gathering historical weather data from multiple sites. Ongoing efforts are focused on analyzing the data and generating metrics for site-by-site power production, variability, and correlation, and definitive conclusions will be drawn upon the project’s completion.
