Washington State Electricity Production
The USA has re-joined the Paris Climate Accord1and is beginning to push in the right direction when it comes to green electricity production. The state of Washington is a leader in the Lower 48 when it comes to producing electricity from green sources, with the vast majority stemming from hydroelectric dams2. However, there is still around 20% from coal and gas fired power plants and the aim should be to eliminate this completely. Further construction of dams is not always feasible due to the destruction of habitat for animals and displacement of people3.
Sources(links):
1. Paris Climate Agreement: Everything You Need to Know, NRDC, Accessed: February 2021
2. “Washington State Profile and Energy Estimates”, eia, Jan. 2021
3. G. Ledec and J. D. Quintero, “Good dams and bad dams: environmental criteria for site selection of hydroelectric projects,” Lat. Am. Caribb. Reg. Dev. Work. Pap. No. 16, vol. 16, no. November, p. 21, 2003, [Online]
The Solar Resource in Washington State
A major challenge of relying on solar energy in WA is that the bulk of the energy is consumed in densely populated Western Washington, known for having overcast weather for half of the year. Solar insolation, or the available solar energy that can be capured on a given surface area, is rather abundant in Eastern WA.
This presents an opportunity of powering Eastern WA communities, while also sending energy over the cascade mountain range to Western WA.
Fortunately, the infrastructure to supply Western WA with energy produced in Eastern WA is largely already in place. Electric power is transported across the Cascade Mountain Range every day. In fact, Eastern WA already supplies hydroelectric power throughout WA, 10 other states, and Canada.
The following visualization shows the population distribution in WA and the available average solar insolation, in kWh/m^2/day for a typical year.
Additionally, the figure below illustrates the current paths of power distribution in the state of Washington. This shows that the infrastructure is in place to send solar energy produced in the East side of the state could be easily distributed to the more populated West side of the state.
Different Factors of Solar Panels in Washington
Many facotrs must be considered when thinking about placing solar farms in Washington. These factors would be weather, daylight hours, and sunshine days. Solar panels operate best in cold conditions; however, the sun must be out. Washington is known for its rainy season and hot summers. Although Washington may not have optimal weather for solar panels it does have some of the longest days during the Summers and Winters in the United States. Lastly, it is important to consider the various weather types received in Washington to best understand if Washington could make good use of solar panels.
Here we can see the average temperature of Washington through each month. During the peak the weather averages from 76.3 degrees in August and as low as 48.4 degrees in June. During the winter seasons it can be as high as 46.2 degrees in February and as low as 35.1 degrees in December. The cold season can be optimal for solar panels but lets look into other factors.
This visual takes into account the length of days in Washington. This is key factor to take in as Washington has long summer days where solar panels can potentially thrive. As seen here during peak summer season daylight can shine for up to 15.9 hours, meaning panels can harvest electricity for ⅔’s of a day. The length of daylight is substantially less in Winter than Summer which is expected but since solar panels are optimal in cold weather it can make up for this. Now lets look into the different types of weather Washington receives.
Over four years of data is summarized here, it can be seen that majority of the days are either sunny or rainy. 60-75% of the Summer is sunny. During the Winter about 25% of the days are sunny. Over 4 years (1460 days), there were a total of 640 viable days to harvest solar power. This is important as it can be understood that there is a 44% chance the sun will be out in Washington.
Looking at the data in combination, it would not be right to say that the winter seasons would be optimal for solar panels. With the high amounts of rain, snow, and fog through the Winter seasons it renders the beneifts of cold weather for solar panels useless. However, during the Summer solar panels would be highly effective, while the sun is out and their are long days to continously feed them energy. It is clear with the long days and high quanitity of sunny days the panels would thrive.
