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					</table>The U.S. Department of Energy (<a href="https://www.energy.gov/">DOE</a>) has introduced a comprehensive roadmap to expedite the integration of clean energy sources into the national transmission grid.
The Transmission Interconnection Roadmap outlines solutions for aligning interconnection processes with the increasing demand for renewable energy resources, which is driven by the rapid and widespread transition to clean energy.
The Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X) roadmap, released in April 2024, offers a range of solutions to diverse interconnection stakeholders, addressing both short-term and long-term challenges in the transmission system interconnection process.
The swift decarbonization of the U.S. electricity grid has resulted in a sharp uptick in requests to connect new clean energy generation sources such as solar, wind, and battery storage to the transmission system.
Between 2000 and 2010, the United States saw an average of 500 to 1,000 new transmission interconnection requests annually. However, over the past decade, this number has surged to 2,500–3,000 annually—an increase of 300-500%.
This backlog of requests has the potential to impede the deployment of clean energy significantly and result in heightened expenses for both project developers and electricity consumers.
A recent report by DOE&#8217;s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/solar-storage-wind-queues-as-backlog-rises">reveals</a> a substantial increase in generation and storage capacity seeking grid interconnection, with nearly 2,600 GW actively in the queue.
This surge has led to uncertainties, delays, and added costs for developers, consumers, utilities, and regulators.
Since the <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/inflation-reduction-act-faster-transition-clean-energy-u-s">enactment</a> of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), over 1,200 GW of capacity (including more than 500 GW of solar, over 540 GW of storage, and 125 GW of wind) have applied for interconnection.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-65560 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture3-1.png" alt="" width="587" height="384" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture3-1.png 587w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture3-1-300x196.png 300w" sizes="(max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px" />
Interconnection procedures must adapt to accommodate the substantial volume of current and future requests. Moreover, technological advancements, particularly in data gathering, analysis, and software management systems, have opened up new possibilities for automating aspects of interconnection procedures.
The roadmap is structured around four key objectives, each essential to the overarching goal of the DOE i2X initiative: facilitating a simpler, quicker, and more equitable interconnection process for clean energy resources while enhancing the reliability, resilience, and security of our electrical grid.
This roadmap includes four target metrics for 2030 that can be measured using publicly available data:
<ul>
<li>Reduce the average time from interconnection request to interconnection agreement for completed projects to less than 12 months.</li>
<li>Decrease the variance of interconnection costs for all projects to less than $150 per kilowatt.</li>
<li>Increase completion rates for projects that enter the facility study phase to greater than 70%.</li>
<li>Eliminate annual North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) disturbance events involving unexpected tripping of IBRs that are not identified in the analysis due to inaccurate IBR models.</li>
</ul>
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-65561 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4.png" alt="" width="975" height="380" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4.png 975w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4-300x117.png 300w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4-768x299.png 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4-650x253.png 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4-624x243.png 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Picture4-600x234.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 975px) 100vw, 975px" />
Transmission Interconnection Roadmap Goals
Goal 1: Enhance Data Accessibility, Transparency, and Security for Interconnection
Enhancing transparency in interconnection data would empower customers to evaluate and select potential projects, facilitate third-party modeling, streamline process automation, foster competition while ensuring fair outcomes, and enable the monitoring, tracking, and auditing of interconnection processes and improvements.
This objective acknowledges the importance of upholding data security through appropriate access control measures while expanding access to information regarding timelines, costs, and delays following the signing of an interconnection agreement (IA).
Solutions:
<ul>
<li>Enhance the breadth, accessibility, quality, and standardization of data pertaining to projects already in interconnection queues, encompassing project characteristics, cost projections, and post-IA information.</li>
<li>Improve the extent, timeliness, accuracy, and uniformity of interconnection study models and modeling assumptions provided by transmission providers to interconnection customers.</li>
<li>Develop tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing transmission and interconnection data made available through the preceding two solutions, ensuring secure data-sharing protocols.</li>
</ul>
Goal 2: Enhance Interconnection Process Efficiency and Timeliness
Interconnection backlogs and delays often stem from the rapid increase in interconnection requests, inefficiencies within the interconnection processes, and limitations in workforce capacity.
In the United States, it&#8217;s anticipated that interconnection queue volumes will remain significant and potentially volatile in the foreseeable future. This objective encompasses solutions aimed at improving queue management practices, impacted system studies, inclusivity, fairness in processes, and workforce development.
Queue Management
<ul>
<li>Implementing stricter commercial readiness criteria, financial commitments, withdrawal penalties, and time constraints can help balance effectiveness, equity, and principles of open access.</li>
<li>Enforcing interconnection study timelines and offering incentives for minimizing study delays.</li>
<li>Continuing to automate certain aspects of the interconnection process, such as data validation, customer communications, and data sharing across processes and models.</li>
<li>Monitoring interconnection processing times and implementing interventions as necessary, such as additional temporary staffing or temporary fast-tracking.</li>
<li>Enhancing existing fast-track options and introducing new ones, like surplus and energy-only interconnection services.</li>
<li>Considering market-based approaches to rationing interconnection access.</li>
</ul>
Goal 3: Foster Economic Efficiency in Interconnection
This objective focuses on solutions to enhance cost allocation, minimize costs for electricity consumers, improve coordination between transmission planning and the interconnection process, and optimize transmission investment through advancements in interconnection studies.
Expanding interconnection service options and proactive transmission investments can reduce uncertainty and enhance the efficiency of cost allocations. Should ongoing efforts to alleviate interconnection bottlenecks prove ineffective, transmission providers may need to explore more significant departures from the current participant funding model for interconnection cost allocation.
Solutions:
<ul>
<li>Explore various methods for identifying and allocating the costs of proactive transmission investments, considering state, federal, and participant funding options.</li>
<li>Ensure that generators have the choice to opt for energy-only interconnection and potential re-dispatch instead of bearing the costs of network upgrades.</li>
<li>Investigate options to decouple the interconnection process from network upgrade investments to enhance upfront interconnection cost certainty.</li>
</ul>
Coordination Between Interconnection and Transmission Planning
Enhancing alignment in data inputs, assumptions, and process timelines between interconnection and long-term transmission planning can prevent transmission solutions that would be more efficiently identified in transmission plans from being triggered through the interconnection process.
Solution:
Align data inputs, assumptions, and process timing more closely between interconnection and transmission planning processes.
Goal 4: Ensure Grid Reliability, Resilience, and Security
In recent years, significant disturbances leading to the disconnection of inverter-based resources (IBRs) have highlighted performance issues not identified during the interconnection studies of the involved plants.
The solutions outlined under this goal aim to minimize these gaps by updating technical requirements within interconnection studies, models, and tools and enhancing industry interconnection standards.
Solutions:
<ul>
<li>The submission of validated electromagnetic transient (EMT) models for all IBRs is required during the interconnection process, and screening criteria must be established to identify when EMT studies are necessary within a region.</li>
<li>Develop regulations for dynamic model quality testing and validation for root-mean-square (RMS) and EMT simulations, ensuring plant performance aligns with relevant interconnection requirements.</li>
<li>Devise a study process flow that better aligns with project development timelines.</li>
<li>Enhance the computational speed of interconnection reliability assessments.</li>
</ul>
DOE Support to Implement Solutions 
DOE has multiple roles in implementing the solutions identified in the roadmap, such as facilitating solution adoption, providing funding and technical assistance, and supporting the research community.
Its Grid Deployment Office invests in accelerating the interconnection of clean energy generation through the $5 billion Grid Innovation Program, which supports the deployment of projects that use innovative approaches to enhance grid resilience and reliability.
DOE&#8217;s Solar Energy Technologies and Wind Energy Technologies Office recently released a $10 million funding opportunity for analytical tools and approaches to accelerate interconnection.
They will also lead a series of forthcoming public forums to implement interconnection standards to maintain a reliable, resilient, and safe grid.
Through the Title 17 Clean Energy Financing Program, the Loan Programs Office seeks to finance energy infrastructure projects, including infrastructure investments to support transmission interconnection, reconductoring transmission lines, and upgrading voltage.
The department also supports electric vehicle charging deployment through the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (Joint Office). The Joint Office is convening stakeholders to identify gaps between transmission and transportation planning to accelerate transmission development within transportation rights-of-way.
DOE plans to release a draft companion roadmap focusing on the distribution grid in the coming months.

US Aims to Slash Grid Interconnection Timeline from 33 to Under 12 Months by 2030

Researchers from <a href="https://www.chalmers.se/en/pages/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chalmers University of Technology</a>, Sweden, have published a paper outlining a new concept for rechargeable batteries made of cement. Developed by scientists attached to the varsity’s Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, the concept involves a high-rise concrete structure capable of storing energy like a giant battery.
The ever-growing need for sustainable building materials for the future prompted Emma Zhang, a former associate at the university, to join Professor Luping Tang’s research group. The team has now developed the first such concept for a rechargeable cement-based battery.
The concept involves a cement-based mixture mixed with small amounts of short carbon fibers. This, the researchers said, increases the conductivity and flexural toughness. Then, embedded within the mixture is a metal-coated carbon-fiber mesh – iron for the anode and nickel for the cathode. The team said that they have settled for the particular prototype after a lot of testing.
Zhang said that very low-performance results from earlier studies investigating concrete battery technology forced them to think out of the box and come up with another way to produce the electrode. “This particular idea that we have developed – which is also rechargeable – has never been explored before. Now we have proof of concept-at-lab scale,” Zhang explained.
Tang and Zhang’s research has produced a rechargeable cement-based battery with an average energy density of 7 Wh per square meter (or 0.8 Wh per liter). Energy density is used to express the capacity of the battery, and a modest estimate is that the performance of the new Chalmers battery could be more than ten times that of earlier attempts at concrete batteries. The energy density is still low in comparison to commercial batteries, said the researchers. They, however, added that the limitation could be overcome owing to the huge volume at which the battery could be constructed when used in buildings.
The fact that the battery is rechargeable is its most important quality, and the possibilities for utilization if the concept is further developed and commercialized are almost staggering, feel the researchers. The researchers see applications that could range from powering LEDs, providing 4G connections in remote areas, or cathodic protection against corrosion in concrete infrastructure.
“It could also be coupled with solar cell panels, for example, to provide electricity and become the energy source for monitoring systems in highways or bridges, where sensors operated by a concrete battery could detect cracking or corrosion,” suggests Zhang.
The concept of using structures and buildings in this way could be revolutionary, because it would offer an alternative solution to the energy crisis by providing a large volume of energy storage, the experts said.
Concrete, which is formed by mixing cement with other ingredients, is the world’s most commonly used building material. The researchers feel that although from a sustainability perspective, concrete is far from ideal, the potential to add functionality to it could offer a new dimension.
“We have a vision that in the future, this technology could allow for whole sections of multi-story buildings made of functional concrete. Considering that any concrete surface could have a layer of this electrode embedded, we are talking about enormous volumes of functional concrete,” Zhang added in an optimistic note.
The idea is still at a very early stage, said the researchers. The technical concerns need to be addressed before the commercialization of the technique.
“Since concrete infrastructure is usually built to last fifty or even a hundred years, the batteries would need to be refined to match this or to be easier to exchange and recycle when their service life is over. For now, this offers a major challenge from a technical point of view,” Zhang elaborated.
While technologies such as these are breaking ground, a new joint study published by the European Patent Office and the International Energy Agency has <a href="https://mercomindia.com/clean-energy-innovations-slowed-between-2017-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highlighted</a> the need to accelerate innovation in clean energy technologies to meet climate goals. The report stated that clean energy innovations slowed between 2017-19, grew by an average rate of 3.3%. This progress is only a quarter of the average annual growth rate recorded a decade ago (+12.5% for 2000-13), the study noted.

Concrete Batteries Could Make Future Buildings Sustainable: Study

In a recently published report, the Saudi Arabia-based Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (<a href="https://www.apicorp.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">APICORP</a>) has predicted that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) energy sector will receive investments worth $805 billion over the next five years.
The multilateral development financial institution, in its <a href="https://www.apicorp.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/APICORP_MENAEnergyOutlook2021-2025_EN_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MENA Energy Investment Outlook 2021 2025</a>, has stated that renewables are slated to claim a significant share of almost 40% of the estimated $250 billion in power sector investments.
The investment of $805 billion between 2021 and 2025 is a $13 billion increase from the $792 billion estimates in last year’s five-year outlook.
The report attributes this modest rise to four factors, of which the accelerated pace of renewables in the region is said to play a key role in registering the numbers. Other influences include strong confidence in the rebound of global GDP, rising energy demand, and the comeback of Libyan projects – which alone accounts for around $10 billion in planned projects.
According to the report, the contribution of must-run technologies such as nuclear and renewables during 2020 started to claim a higher share in the power supply mix in several MENA countries such as Egypt, UAE, Morocco, and Jordan.
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-26321 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1.png" alt="MENA 1" width="1641" height="649" srcset="https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1.png 1641w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1-300x119.png 300w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1-768x304.png 768w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1-1536x607.png 1536w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1-650x257.png 650w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1-624x247.png 624w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-1-600x237.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1641px) 100vw, 1641px" /></a>
The MENA region added about 1.5 GW of solar power in 2020. In 2021, 3 GW is expected to be added, and in the next five years, about 20 GW is expected to be added.
Wind and other sources such as hydropower are also coming into their own as countries step up their energy diversification plans.
<a href="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2.png"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-26323 size-full" src="https://mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2.png" alt="MENA 2" width="1674" height="849" srcset="https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2.png 1674w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2-300x152.png 300w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2-768x390.png 768w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2-1536x779.png 1536w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2-650x330.png 650w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2-624x316.png 624w, https://cms.mercomindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/MENA-2-600x304.png 600w" sizes="(max-width: 1674px) 100vw, 1674px" /></a>
The region has high potential, but the growth of renewables would depend on conducive policies and enabling regulations.
The unprecedented decline in the cost of renewable and massive renewable energy targets – which range from 13% to 52% of installed capacity by 2030 – are the two key accelerators fueling renewables penetration in the MENA region.
Putting forth multiple case studies, the report highlighted that Jordan, for example, managed to increase the percentage of power generated from renewables from just 1% in 2012 to around 20%. Morocco’s 4 GW of renewables (wind, solar, and hydro) constitute around 37% of the country’s total generation mix and almost 90% of its current 3.5 GW project pipeline. Egypt’s total installed renewables capacity amounts to around 2.3 GW, including 1 GW of solar PV and 1.3 GW of onshore wind, the study elaborated.
In the UAE, renewables constituted around 6% of the total installed capacity and 3% of the power generated as of 2020. Although it may just miss its short-term targets, the UAE’s solar capacity is projected to grow the fastest in the region, with nearly 5 GW of solar projects in the pipeline, the study said.
Elaborating on the report, Dr. Ahmed Ali Attiga, Chief Executive Officer of APICORP, said, “APICORP’s MENA Energy Investment Outlook 2021-2025 indicates that energy industries are entering a period of relative stability in terms of investments as most MENA countries return to GDP growth in 2021 and the energy transition showing no signs of slowing down. We anticipate a slow but steady recovery of the energy sector from the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, supported by continued investment from the public sector and an upswing in demand.”
According to APICORP’s report, the countries that lagged include Saudi Arabia and Oman.
In Saudi Arabia, only 330 MW of utility-scale solar PV projects and just one 2.5 MW wind demonstration project developed jointly by Saudi Aramco and General Electric were operational as of 2020. Even when combined with the tenders under its National Renewable Energy Program, the total renewables capacity of the country totals 3.3 GW, around 24 GW short of its stated target of 27.3 GW by 2024.
Despite ongoing procurement of large-scale utility projects, the report elaborated that Oman is also far from achieving its short-term target of generating 10% of its power from renewables by 2025, with a single 105 MW utility solar PV project and a 50 MW onshore wind project commissioned over the past two years.
As for Iraq, the report stated that the first solar bid round for projects totaling 755 MW capacity was announced in May 2019, and bids of short-listed companies were disclosed in September the following year. Overall, the country aims to reach 10 GW of solar power generation capacity by 2030 and generate 20% of its power from solar.
Coming to hydrogen, the report forecast MENA emerging as a major blue and green hydrogen-exporting region owing to low-cost gas resources and strong renewable energy progress.
A few countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Morocco, have already made headways as low-cost exporters of blue and green hydrogen, net-zero ammonia, and other low-carbon products, while other countries, such as Oman, UAE, and Egypt are attempting to catch up, it added.
In July last year, Air Products, in <a href="https://mercomindia.com/green-hydrogen-production-facility-saudi-arabia-neom/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collaboration</a> with ACWA Power and NEOM, had announced the signing of an agreement to develop a $5 billion (~₹372.7 billion) green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy in Saudi Arabia.
In 2018, Aramex, a UAE-based logistics solution provider, had <a href="https://mercomindia.com/aramex-commissions-solar-rooftop-3-2-mw-dubai/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inaugurated</a> a 3.2 MW solar photovoltaic project for its new logistics facility in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was the company’s largest solar rooftop project of 3.2 MW in Dubai.

Renewables to Gain 40% Share of $250 Billion Power Investments in MENA by 2025

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