Abstract
ABSTRACT Sustainable electricity systems need renewable and dispatchable energy sources. Solar energy is an abundant source of renewable energy globally which is, though, by nature only available during the day, and especially in clear weather conditions. We compare three technology configurations able to provide dispatchable solar power at times without sunshine: Photovoltaics (PV) combined with battery (BESS) or thermal energy storage (TES) and concentrating solar power (CSP) with TES. Modeling different periods without sunshine, we find that PV+BESS is competitive for shorter storage durations while CSP+TES gains economic advantages for longer storage periods (also over PV+TES). The corresponding tipping points lie at 2–3 hours (current cost), and 4–10 hours if expectations on future cost developments are taken into consideration. PV+TES becomes only more competitive than CSP+TES with immense additional cost reductions of PV. Hence, there remain distinct niches for two technologies: PV+BESS for short storage durations and CSP+TES for longer ones.
Highlights
Driven by dedicated support policies, electricity from solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines has become much cheaper in the last decade and has reached grid-parity in many electricity markets around the globe
Our results show that PV+BESS is cheaper than concentrating solar power (CSP)+thermal energy storage (TES) for short storage durations up to 2–3 hours, regardless of the cost development
The results of our analysis show that the competitiveness of CSP combined with TES in comparison to PV with storage (PVS) in future fully decarbonized electricity systems is highly dependent on the required storage size
Summary
Driven by dedicated support policies, electricity from solar photovoltaics (PV) and wind turbines has become much cheaper in the last decade and has reached grid-parity in many electricity markets around the globe. With expected invest ment costs as low as e.g. USD 350/kW for utility-scale PV installations in 2050 (NREL 2019), cheap renewable electricity from solar and wind power will play a big role in decarbonizing power systems (European Commission 2020) and will be the cheapest power source for new power gen erators in most places (Nayak et al 2019). These technologies are, not sufficient to assure that supply meets demand at all times as their power generation follows the intermittent nature of its resource and not the demand profile. There are different technologies suggested to balance supply and demand on different time scales, from seconds to seasonal variations
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