• Energy Research

Assessment of energy storage technologies at a macro-scale for grid integration, has often focused on singular technologies and neglected competition between them, thus leaving out of the optimization the decision of which energy storage to prioritize. We present a systematic deployment analysis method that enables system-value evaluation in perfect competitive markets and demonstrate its application to 20 different energy storage technologies across 40 distinct scenarios for a representative future power system in Africa. Our results demonstrate the significant benefits of optimizing energy storage with competition compared to without (+10% cost savings) and highlight the relevance of several energy storage technologies in various scenarios. This work provides insights into the role of multi-technology energy storage in carbon-neutral power systems and informs future research and policy decisions.

<p>Brazil has seen more than a ten-fold increase in wind power capacity in the last decade and in the past few years, the development of solar PV increased as well. However, little is known about the impacts of variable renewable generation (VRES) in Brazil compared to other world regions, although Brazilian wind power infrastructure is concentrated in the least protected ecosystems that are prone to degradation, desertification and species extinction.  Even less is known about solar PV. This study focuses on land-use impacts of past VRES generation development in Brazilian federal states, which cover most of the country's VRES installed capacity. We assessed and compared their spatial installation patterns associated land-use and land cover change in the period before installation until 2019, using a detailed wind turbine and solar PV location database in combination with a high-resolution land-use and land cover map. Also, we explored which drivers contributed to the existing allocation of VRES in Brazil. We found that 62% of the studied wind park area was covered by native vegetation and coastal sands. Overall, 3.2% of the total wind park area was converted from native vegetation to anthropogenic use. Wind parks installed mainly on native vegetation, on average, underwent higher land-use change compared to other wind parks. Similar to wind power, solar PV in some regions e.g., Bahia, occupied mostly native vegetation land, however being installed in closer proximity to anthropogenic land activities than wind power.</p>

In order to integrate more and more variable renewable energy sources (VRES) electric grids play a significant role. There is an obvious need for more interconnections and more enhanced grids with more VRES. On the other side, the monetary, material, social and spatial constraints (free corridors) impose limits on grid expansions. Robust modelling of electric grids (distribution, transmission and interconnection) at World level in integrated assessment models (IAMs) is beyond the state of the art of current computation capabilities and data availability. A number of relevant input data like length of the grids, voltage levels, rated power, and after that material prices, population density, VRES shares of generation and flexibility technologies, hourly curtailments in the energy system are not sufficient to calculate explicit limitations imposed by power flows. Therefore, the idea of this paper is that in the absence of sufficient data and computability, for the first time some expert assumptions in the form of proportions are used to represent interconnection grids as an important constraint and flexibility option for variable renewable energy production, modelled at hourly level during one year using EnergyPLAN. These assumptions are about proportions of newly integrated renewable energy between transmission and distribution grids, proportions of grids to the generation plants and their utilization. Suggested method for application in WILIAM will be illustrated.

Abstract Renewable energies are expanding rapidly around the globe. In several countries, however, their expansion is being challenged by NIMBY groups and land footprint. In this article, we suggest that indeed a major challenge for renewable energy expansion appears to be tied to land use questions, especially in regions with high population density. Our research finds a strong relationship between population density and renewable energy expansion. The power density of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) sources, such as wind turbines or photovoltaic panels, is much lower than that of fossil fuels or nuclear power plants, to the extent that land availability seems to be the limiting factor for large scale VRE production. During the last decade, a substantial theoretical effort was dedicated to study the actual power density of VRE, and the available space in order to estimate the limits that land footprint sets on VRE production. On top of the technological, and geographical issues associated with such studies there are somewhat more complicated and less well defined sociological issues related to the willingness of population to live in near proximity to large scale VRE farms. To explore the overall issue of VRE penetration and limitations, the installed VRE capacity data from different countries is examined. It is found that in Germany, with VRE power density of 0.27 W/m2 (2018 data), there is a strong negative correlation between the population density and VRE capacity, dominated by solar power production. We interpret this correlation as an indication that Germany has reached the point where land usage is becoming the limiting factor for installation of new VRE power plants. As Germany is a worldwide leader in VRE production per capita with more than 1 kW/person, we speculate that this sets a universal barrier of 2%-3% on the fractional land area available for VRE production. Crossing this barrier the expansion of the installed VRE capacity is expected to stall. This does not, however, mean that renewable energy expansion will be doomed in countries with high population density. Rather it suggests the need for new approaches — a stronger focus on battery storage technologies, inter-sectoral coupling (renewable energy storage in automobile batteries) and continued investment in efficiency improvements of renewable energy technologies. It may also be a question of how renewable energy develops — enhancing solar on existing built infrastructure (rooftops, siding, and even roads) could help address this issue.

AbstractPursued climate goals require reduced greenhouse gas emissions by substituting fossil fuels with energy from renewable sources in all energy‐consuming processes. On a large‐scale, this can mainly be achieved through electricity from wind and sun, which are subject to intermittency. To efficiently integrate this variable energy, a coupling of the power sector to the residential, transport, industry, and commercial/trade sector is often promoted, called sector coupling (SC). Nevertheless, our literature review indicates that SC is frequently misinterpreted and its scope varies among available research, from exclusively considering the use of excess renewable electricity to a rather holistic view of integrated energy systems, including excess heat or even biomass sources. The core objective of this article is to provide a thorough understanding of the SC concept through an analysis of its origin and its main purpose, as described in the current literature. We provide a structured categorization of SC, derived from our findings, and critically discuss its remaining challenges as well as its value for renewable energy systems. We find that SC is rooted in the increasing use of variable renewable energy sources, and its main assets are the flexibility it provides for renewable energy systems, decarbonization potential for fossil‐fuel‐based end‐consumption sectors, and consequently, reduced dependency on oil and gas extracting countries. However, the enabling technologies face great challenges in their economic feasibility because of the uncertain future development of competing solutions.This article is categorized under: Energy Systems Economics > Economics and Policy Energy Systems Economics > Systems and Infrastructure

With the integration of more variable renewable energy, the need for storage is growing. Rather than utility scale storage, smart grid technology (not restricted, but mainly involving bidirectional communication between the supply and demand side and dynamic pricing) enables flexible consumption to be a virtual storage alternative for moderation of the production of variable renewable energy sources on the micro grid level. A study, motivated with energy loss allocation, electric demand and the legal framework that is characteristic for the average Serbian household, was performed using the HOMER software tool. The decision to shift or build deferrable load rather than sell on site generated energy from variable renewable energy sources to the grid was based on the consumer's net present cost minimization. Based on decreasing the grid sales hours of the micro grid system to the transmission grid from 3,498 to 2,009, it was shown that the demand response could be included in long-term planning of the virtual storage option. Demand responsive actions that could be interpreted as storage investment costs were quantified to 1€2 per year in this article. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 42009: Smart grid]