These two articles point to the problem with transitioning a 50% renewables market. The grid’s configuration and long term storage are raising the costs of these ambitious proposals.
“Why Offshore Wind and Energy Giants Are Chasing Off-Grid Green Hydrogen”
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles ... n-hydrogen
“The European Union wants to build 40 gigawatts of green hydrogen electrolyzers by 2030 and estimates that 80 to 120 gigawatts of solar and wind will be needed to power them. That’s a new headache for Europe’s grid operators. Decarbonization is expected to double the demand for electricity as transport and heat are also electrified. Taking hydrogen production off the power grid could be a win-win solution to these problems. That’s the idea behind plans for what's termed "islanded" hydrogen, which would pair electrolyzers with offshore wind farms and send hydrogen molecules, rather than electrons, back to shore…The costs of transporting hydrogen from ocean platforms via pipeline may appear at first glance to be much greater than the costs of laying undersea transmission to carry electricity to shore. But that doesn’t take into account the cost of offshore substations to collect wind farm power, or the severely congested state of the onshore power grid. A massive coordinated effort will be needed to whip those grids into shape to absorb the rapidly growing amount of offshore wind power being planned.”
“Report Outlines How US Could Reach 50% Renewables by 2030”
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles ... es-by-2030
“So finds a new report from Wood Mackenzie analyzing the investments and policy changes needed for the U.S. grid to reach 50 percent renewables by 2030. That’s not quite as aggressive as President-elect Joe Biden’s goal of a zero-carbon U.S. energy sector by 2035, but it’s still a lofty target that will require a radical reconfiguration of the country’s generation and transmission system to achieve. “Getting to 50 percent would require a pretty widespread change to the U.S. power grid, particularly if targeting a 10-year timeframe,” said Aaron Barr, the report’s author and principal consultant with WoodMac’s Energy Transition practice. “But it’s certainly within the realm of the possible. Many of the necessary technologies have reached technical and commercial maturity but require policy support to drive significant levels of deployment.” The Biden-Harris administration will have many options to act without congressional support to drive this kind of rapid decarbonization. These in themselves won’t be enough to hit 50 percent renewables by 2030. But they will be necessary precursors to getting there since they include key steps to modernize market structures and transmission networks that will lay the groundwork for further expansion”