"Large-scale integration of Renewable Energy Sources"! | "The experience of the USA and Europe in relation to the Central Asian countries"!

I believe that when building the architecture of renewable energy generation in Southern Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, there is a need to focus on the US Synchronous AC Power System, which includes California, part of Nevada, Arizona, their and the Texas gas transmission system. Almost similar potential is observed (but smaller) for solar radiation, the availability of the necessary power grid, the availability of gas transportation infrastructure (of course, we are not talking about scale).

The US gas transportation system is the most powerful in the world, in aggregate it is comparable with the gas transportation system of the whole of Europe (plus one argument why these regions have the opportunity to integrate renewable energy at a rapid pace). A typical feature of the US gas sector is the development of so-called centers or hubs, for example, on the border of Texas and Louisiana, as well as north Louisiana in the Chicago area. The capacity of gas storage facilities in the United States is very large, which allows avoiding sharp fluctuations, which, according to estimates in 1998 (unfortunately, I did not find modern data), there were about 400 units. At the moment, it can be assumed that the presence of storage facilities is the missing link in the integration of renewable energy in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan on a significant scale (as components for maneuverable capacity resources). There is a so-called system of parallel gas flows from state to state in the USA (a small analogy of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan), where gas is exchanged between large nodes.

Localization of solar stations in the United States. For obvious reasons, the installations are located in the territory with the highest radiation. There are gas pipelines that connect California with the rest of the states, as well as a very developed gas pipeline network inside California. As for the eastern part of the country, namely North and South Carolina, they also have a connection with the gas transportation system. In Florida, solar power plants are localized on the same site as a large gas transportation hub. The states above also have access to gas.

?Expected (probably already there) construction of a new gas pipeline from West Texas to Los Angeles (I believe this may also be related to the development of renewable energy in the region).

The diagram below shows the regions where gas-fired power plants predominate. As you can see, there is a coincidence with the location of solar and wind power plants (including Texas, there is a significant number of wind turbines).

?Summing up, we can say that the effective development of renewable energy in our time should be accompanied by the development of gas and related infrastructure, including the construction of gas storage facilities, etc.

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PS The scheme of stimulating tariffs for renewable energy also takes its roots from the United States.

Article 210 of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA) was an integral part of the support of renewable energy sources. This was a kind of response to embargo of 1973, when the government was looking for other sources of energy to avoid dependence on oil. PURPA obliged energy companies to buy electricity from suppliers that were not their property (the first step towards the destruction of the natural monopoly in the electric power sector, which dominated the country for 70 years). It was believed that this would give an impetus to the development of renewable energy. However, after Mr. Carter left the post of president, the development of renewable energy stagnated for 25 years. A similar experience was more or less used by Japan (also a reaction to the embargo), but it proved most successful in Germany in the late 1980s. In Germany, a stimulating tariff was already in effect in 1991, which had much in common with PURPA. Probably for this reason, this tariff is now considered precisely as the German experience. Thus, the prerequisites for the development of renewable energy were the oil embargo, the 1979 postponed its integration, it received wider support again under President Obama, in parallel with the shale revolution and the increase in shale gas and oil production as an alternative to nuclear energy, in the fight against climate warming and CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.