ABSTRACT
Renewable generation has many potential benefits over fossil or nuclear power generation, but foremost among them is that the “fuel” – the raw energy which is ultimately transformed into electric power – is delivered to the Distributed generator (DG) site by nature, at no cost. This chapter looks at some of the intricacies of modeling renewable energy with a series of example cases based on solar- and wind-powered electric generators. It deals with a look at the basic requirements for renewable DG suitability, and at energy cost analysis with examples that show how overall energy production and generator characteristics can be analyzed using a statistical analysis of a renewable energy source’s availability on an annual basis. The only real “difference” in the planning and evaluation required for renewable resource DG is in the temporal detail required for modeling the energy source with respect to availability of the power.
