Energy Storage Integration with Renewable Energies: The Case of Concentration Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract

The integration of energy storage in electrical transmission and distribution grids is seen as the solution to secure the continuous supply of energy and increase stability and efficiency. The increasing presence of renewable energy sources with an intermittent and unpredictable behavior is threatening the balance between generation and demand that allows the stable operation of electrical power systems. Energy storage is the enabling technology to achieve the decoupling of generation and demand required to increase the share of renewable energies in the generation mix. The first part of this chapter presents the existing energy storage technologies, describing their main features and fields of application. In a second part, the particular case of concentration photovoltaic generation systems and their combination with a hybrid storage solution based on the integration of lead–acid batteries and ultracapacitors is presented.