Re-thinking Solar Energy Delivery: Non-wire Solar-powered Energy-carriers, Integrated with Utility-scale Generation, to Advance Solar Adoption to 30%

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Sustained advances in solar technologies have led to a levelized cost of energy of less than $0.03 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for utility-scale solar, but the delivered cost remains as high as $0.20/kWh in some states due to the ever-increasing costs of operations of transmission and distribution (T&D) infrastructure. This project is developing a non-wire delivery system to circumvent a utility's T&D in order to accelerate solar adoption and achieve a delivered cost less than $0.15/kWh before 2025. The system includes a utility-scale solar array that is directly connected to an integrated mobile energy storage system with on-board power electronics systems. Since there is no grid-connection, the inverters and the alternating current balance of plant equipment are not required. Such solar plants can be seamlessly built with environmental permits only, eliminating the years-long process to secure grid interconnection rights and thereby eliminating a very large portion of the soft costs.