Fig. 2: Infrastructure results.
From: Offshore wind and wave energy can reduce total installed capacity required in zero-emissions grids
Scenario numbers are displayed at the top of each bar. a Total 2050 installed zero-emissions generation capacity (GW) in the Western Interconnection in each scenario. Total installed capacity decreases with decreasing offshore wind energy cost targets and mostly decreases with decreasing wave energy cost targets until offshore wind energy costs decline beyond the NREL ATB moderate scenario. b 2050 solar energy installed capacity (GW) in each scenario. Solar energy installed capacity decreases with decreasing offshore wind and wave energy cost targets. c 2050 energy storage installed capacity (GW) in each scenario. Energy storage installed capacity decreases with decreasing offshore wind and wave energy cost targets. d 2050 total land-based transmission capacity (GW) in the Western Interconnection for each scenario. Transmission capacity decreases with decreasing wave energy cost targets and increases with decreasing offshore wind energy cost targets. Note that the x and y axes are flipped in plot (d). This is done so that the trend is fully visible. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
