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Designing diversified renewable energy systems to balance multisector performance

Designing diversified renewable energy systems to balance multisector performance
Designing diversified renewable energy systems to balance multisector performance
Renewable energy system development and improved operation can mitigate climate change. In many regions, hydropower is called to counterbalance the temporal variability of intermittent renewables like solar and wind. However, using hydropower to integrate these renewables can affect aquatic ecosystems and increase cross-sectoral water conflicts. We develop and apply an artificial intelligence-assisted multisector design framework in Ghana, which shows how hydropower’s flexibility alone could enable expanding intermittent renewables by 38% but would increase sub-daily Volta River flow variability by up to 22 times compared to historical baseload hydropower operations. This would damage river ecosystems and reduce agricultural sector revenues by US$169 million per year. A diversified investment strategy identified using the proposed framework, including intermittent renewables, bioenergy, transmission lines and strategic hydropower re-operation could reduce sub-daily flow variability and enhance agricultural performance while meeting future national energy service goals and reducing CO2 emissions. The tool supports national climate planning instruments such as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by steering towards diversified and efficient power systems and highlighting their sectoral and emission trade-offs and synergies.
2398-9629
415–427
Gonzalez, Jose M.
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Tomlinson, James E.
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Martínez Ceseña, Eduardo A.
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Basheer, Mohammed
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Obuobie, Emmanuel
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Padi, Philip T.
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Addo, Salifu
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Baisie, Rasheed
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Etichia, Mikiyas
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Hurford, Anthony
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Bottacin-Busolin, Andrea
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Matthews, John
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Dalton, James
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Smith, D. Mark
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Sheffield, Justin
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Panteli, Mathaios
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Harou, Julien J.
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Gonzalez, Jose M.
c3e00a79-7356-46b0-a761-a9e37e57c3f4
Tomlinson, James E.
d2790445-0993-4d99-b4b0-bcea2e50bf2a
Martínez Ceseña, Eduardo A.
d9e14002-d21d-45a5-8652-acb931d06ce4
Basheer, Mohammed
cca0872b-d756-4c14-a271-4cfaea7f33a3
Obuobie, Emmanuel
2815fc82-26ff-4bcb-8c69-e52cb815ef2b
Padi, Philip T.
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Addo, Salifu
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Baisie, Rasheed
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Etichia, Mikiyas
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Hurford, Anthony
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Bottacin-Busolin, Andrea
7031a74d-15fa-4413-862e-9c2866f6db1a
Matthews, John
8a4b647b-1b7d-452b-8e00-4937c47900c1
Dalton, James
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Smith, D. Mark
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Sheffield, Justin
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Panteli, Mathaios
20ffd833-9f1b-4683-8d3a-29547e09d75e
Harou, Julien J.
1031e73e-e817-4901-a60f-207d98cd4ed0

Gonzalez, Jose M., Tomlinson, James E., Martínez Ceseña, Eduardo A., Basheer, Mohammed, Obuobie, Emmanuel, Padi, Philip T., Addo, Salifu, Baisie, Rasheed, Etichia, Mikiyas, Hurford, Anthony, Bottacin-Busolin, Andrea, Matthews, John, Dalton, James, Smith, D. Mark, Sheffield, Justin, Panteli, Mathaios and Harou, Julien J. (2023) Designing diversified renewable energy systems to balance multisector performance. Nature Sustainability, 6 (4), 415–427. (doi:10.1038/s41893-022-01033-0).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Renewable energy system development and improved operation can mitigate climate change. In many regions, hydropower is called to counterbalance the temporal variability of intermittent renewables like solar and wind. However, using hydropower to integrate these renewables can affect aquatic ecosystems and increase cross-sectoral water conflicts. We develop and apply an artificial intelligence-assisted multisector design framework in Ghana, which shows how hydropower’s flexibility alone could enable expanding intermittent renewables by 38% but would increase sub-daily Volta River flow variability by up to 22 times compared to historical baseload hydropower operations. This would damage river ecosystems and reduce agricultural sector revenues by US$169 million per year. A diversified investment strategy identified using the proposed framework, including intermittent renewables, bioenergy, transmission lines and strategic hydropower re-operation could reduce sub-daily flow variability and enhance agricultural performance while meeting future national energy service goals and reducing CO2 emissions. The tool supports national climate planning instruments such as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) by steering towards diversified and efficient power systems and highlighting their sectoral and emission trade-offs and synergies.

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Accepted/In Press date: 25 November 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 January 2023
Published date: 1 April 2023
Additional Information: The authors acknowledge UKRI research funding through the Future Design and Assessment of water–energy–food–environment Mega Systems (FutureDAMS) research project (ES/P011373/1). For the purpose of open access, the authors have applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license to any author accepted manuscript version arising. The authors thank the national and regional stakeholders who contributed to the BMU-funded (Germany) IUCN-led WISE-UP to Climate Project (13_II_102_Africa_A_WISE-UP). The authors would like to acknowledge the assistance given by Research IT and the use of the HPC Pool funded by the Research Lifecycle Programme at the University of Manchester.

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 477048
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/477048
ISSN: 2398-9629
PURE UUID: c94911db-2499-4592-b7b9-8c4acb519534
ORCID for Justin Sheffield: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2400-0630

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Date deposited: 24 May 2023 16:55
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:33

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Contributors

Author: Jose M. Gonzalez
Author: James E. Tomlinson
Author: Eduardo A. Martínez Ceseña
Author: Mohammed Basheer
Author: Emmanuel Obuobie
Author: Philip T. Padi
Author: Salifu Addo
Author: Rasheed Baisie
Author: Mikiyas Etichia
Author: Anthony Hurford
Author: Andrea Bottacin-Busolin
Author: John Matthews
Author: James Dalton
Author: D. Mark Smith
Author: Mathaios Panteli
Author: Julien J. Harou

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