Abstract
Deep decarbonization of electricity production is a societal challenge that can be achieved with high penetrations of variable renewable energy. We investigate the potential of energy storage technologies to reduce renewable curtailment and CO2 emissions in California and Texas under varying emissions taxes. We show that without energy storage, adding 60 GW of renewables to California achieves 72% CO2 reductions (relative to a zero-renewables case) with close to one third of renewables being curtailed. Some energy storage technologies, on the other hand, allow 90% CO2 reductions from the same renewable penetrations with as little as 9% renewable curtailment. In Texas, the same renewable-deployment level leads to 54% emissions reductions with close to 3% renewable curtailment. Energy storage can allow 57% emissions reductions with as little as 0.3% renewable curtailment. We also find that generator flexibility can reduce curtailment and the amount of energy storage that is needed for renewable integration.
Highlights
The role of energy storage in aiding the integration of renewable energy into electricity systems is highly sensitive to the renewable-penetration level[3]
Detailed analysis is required to estimate the value of energy storage that is used for different applications, including renewable integration[9]. This study addresses this gap by optimizing the investment in and operation of nine currently available energy storage technologies to minimize cost of the California and Texas power systems
We examine nine currently available energy storage technologies: pumped-hydroelectric storage (PHS), adiabatic (ACAES), and diabatic (DCAES) compressed air energy storage (CAES), and lead-acid (PbA), vanadium-redox (VRB), lithium-ion (Li-ion), sodium-sulfur (NaS), polysulfide bromide (PSB), and zinc-bromine (ZNBR) batteries
Summary
The role of energy storage in aiding the integration of renewable energy into electricity systems is highly sensitive to the renewable-penetration level[3]. Detailed analysis is required to estimate the value of energy storage that is used for different applications, including renewable integration[9] This study addresses this gap by optimizing the investment in and operation of nine currently available energy storage technologies to minimize cost of the California and Texas power systems. Others propose optimization models for sizing and operating energy storage to minimize total electricity cost or to maximize investor profits[28,29,30]. Our study extends the existing literature by evaluating the role of energy storage in allowing for deep decarbonization of electricity production through the use of weather-dependent renewable resources (i.e., wind and solar). We consider the impact of a CO2 tax of up to $200 per ton
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