Plugging in the Wind and Sun: Congestion Externalities in the Grid Integration of Renewable Energy

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the United States needs to build an incredible amount of new solar and wind power plants. But the modest pace of capacity addition in renewable energy, particularly new wind and solar projects, has already overwhelmed grid operators in many parts of the United States. The connection process involves informational externalities, because one plant asking to connect to the grid may make it harder for another plant to get information about the cost of connecting itself. This project will examine how the rules for connecting to the electric grid affect such externalities and ultimately the addition of new renewable energy capacity. The goal is to provide policy guidance on how renewable resources like wind and solar can be rapidly and efficiently plugged in.

The RA(s) involved will assemble a new, large dataset on the costs of connecting wind and solar power plants to the electricity grid and analyze this data set to understand the forces hindering progress on renewable energy capacity addition.