Poster Description: Utility-scale wind, solar and BESS projects typically have a design lifetime of 30+ years. Therefore, it is important to have a basic understanding of the potential impacts of climate change, particularly extreme temperatures on the engineering design parameters, to ensure a project’s resilience and efficiency over its operational lifespan. Changes in temperature ranges could impact string sizing, inverter selection and thermal losses which are critical to the reliability and performance of the solar projects. Extreme low and high temperatures could impact the turbine suitability, performance, and reactive power design. Additionally, extreme temperatures can reduce the capacity and efficiency of BESS, affecting the reliability of energy storage. This study uses CMIP6 DBCCA downscaled daily temperature data from six distinct climate models to assess the impact of climate change at multiple utility-scale renewables project sites across the U.S. This poster will demonstrate findings from the study and provide insights into the potential impacts of climate change on engineering designs at these sites, contributing to design more robust projects.
