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Samir Succar, Staff Scientist, Washington, DC

Samir Succar
Samir's work focuses on the integration of renewable energy and the role of enabling technologies such as T&D infrastructure upgrades, demand response and energy storage. He did his undergrad at Oberlin College and has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Princeton University.

Recent Posts

A Renewed Push from the White House on Grid Modernization

Posted June 13, 2011 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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At a White House event today, the administration released a new report that frames the modernization of the US power grid and launches a number of public and private initiatives including new outreach efforts, partnerships and loan programs. As today’s...continued

3 Reasons Why We Don't Have to Choose Between our Health and a Reliable Power Grid: Facilitating a Transition Away From Dirty Coal

Posted August 19, 2010 by Samir Succar in Curbing Pollution, Health and the Environment

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The promise of new clean air rules from EPA will go a long way toward eliminating emissions from the oldest, dirtiest power plants that pollute our air and threaten our health. Despite some spurious claims from industry groups, it’s abundantly...continued

NERC Identifies Solutions to Address the Grid Reliability Challenges of a Transition to Clean Energy

Posted July 29, 2010 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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A recent assessment of the reliability impacts of climate change initiatives paints an encouraging picture of how resources in the pipeline can help enable a major transition to a low carbon economy.  The North American Electricity Reliability Corporation (NERC) makes...continued

Meeting the Challenge of 35% Wind and Solar Energy in the West

Posted May 20, 2010 by Samir Succar in Green Enterprise, Solving Global Warming

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A new report shows that the West can get at least 35 percent of its electricity from wind and solar resources by 2017 resulting in reductions in global warming pollution of 25-45 percent. The Western Wind and Solar Integration Report...continued

Renewables and Energy Storage: A Misunderstood Partnership

Posted March 17, 2010 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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Stimulus funds have provided a big push to the utility scale energy storage sector, but there are still many misconceptions on the role of storage for integrating renewables. Luckily a recent report from NREL provides a great framework for understanding...continued

China pulls ahead of US in Wind (Or Maybe Not?)

Posted February 3, 2010 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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Despite earlier claims that the near-10 GW of US wind installed in 2009 might edge out China in wind capacity additions: The wind industry installed more than 9,900 megawatts of generating capacity, AWEA said. The association says that is enough to...continued

Eastern Wind Study from NREL Provides An Important Step Forward

Posted January 20, 2010 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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Today the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a new wind integration study titled the Eastern Wind Integration and Transmission Study (EWITS). The study examines the infrastructure needed to increase the share of wind energy to 20-30% (today wind is about two percent of...continued

The Danish Wind Experience: Truth and Fiction

Posted September 14, 2009 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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This CEPOS study by Hugh Sharman about the Danish wind experience has begun to receive a great deal of attention.  The study provides a great account of how the Nordic grid has been effectively used to manage the fluctuations from...continued

Does Wind Need Energy Storage?

Posted August 27, 2009 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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With the recent news of PG&E's bid for stimulus funds for compressed air energy storage (CAES) to balance wind, the question again arises whether energy storage is really necessary to put wind and other variable renewables on the grid. I believe the answer...continued

Wind Report Shows Costs Leveling Off

Posted July 22, 2009 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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LBNL/EERE released another annual report on wind market trends. It covers the usual collection of market data points, capacity additions, etc. PDF: http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/reports/2008-wind-technologies.pdf LBNL Publications: http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/re-pubs.html Notable among the findings is that US now tops international wind capacity rankings (that...continued

Stimulus Funds Continue To Push Clean Energy Forward

Posted May 4, 2009 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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Over the weekend, the Department of Interior announced a new initiative funded through the stimulus that includes $41 million to "advance the nation's development and transmission of renewable energy on public lands." Other portions of the $300 million will be...continued

A Fresh Look at the Grid – Connecting the Dots with New Interactive Tools

Posted April 30, 2009 by Samir Succar in Solving Global Warming

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All of a sudden, congress isn't the only place where the electric grid is getting attention. In addition to transmission legislation recently introduced in the senate and the house there seems to be a flurry of reporting  on grid issues...continued

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