Potential for concentrating solar power to provide baseload and dispatchable power

Pfenninger, Stefan; Gauché, Paul; Lilliestam, Johan; Damerau, Kerstin; Wagner, Fabian; Patt, Anthony

doi:10.1038/nclimate2276

Cited by 86 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Such proposals seem to be technically and economically possible and attractive, but imports from North Africa would be a highly complicated endeavour, especially in terms of intercontinental political cooperation and in some cases the need for very long power lines from the production sites in the Sahara to the consumers in the EU (Lilliestam, Bielicki, & Patt, 2012). Although North Africa has the largest RE potential of the EU neighbour regions and the potential to deliver flexible renewable electricity from concentrated solar power (Pfenninger et al, 2014;Trieb et al, 2015), there are significant potentials in regions that are geographically and politically easier to access and that may be available in a much shorter timeframe.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing the gains from EU–Western Balkan renewable electricity cooperation

et al. 2016

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The EU directive on renewable energy sources enables EU Member States to import renewable electricity from non-EU countries and count these imports towards their renewable energy targets. This article investigates whether such cooperation can be beneficial for selected Western Balkan countries and help them to increase their domestic renewable electricity supply: could wind power exports to the EU from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic (FYR) of Macedonia enable additional investments in domestic generation, without 'selling out' the exporter countries' best generation sites? Or would exports rather conflict with the Western Balkans countries' domestic efforts to reach their renewable energy targets and increase the domestic electricity supply? For this, a model was developed in Visual Basic to optimize, from the exporters' perspective, the optimal export level to trigger investments but maximize the wind power supply for domestic use. The analysis takes into account the wind potential, support and price levels in the EU and Western Balkans, investor requirements and financing conditions in the investigated countries.The article shows that cooperation offers a way both for EU Member States and some Western Balkan countries to expand renewable electricity supply and reach their renewable energy targets in a cost-effective way. Partial exports of wind power would allow Serbia, Albania and the FYR of Macedonia to reach their 2020 wind targets. This would not be possible under their existing support schemes or electricity prices. The results indicate that Bosnia and Herzegovina lacks cost-efficient potentials and cannot achieve its wind target in the base case, with or without exports. Climate policy relevanceThe results show that wind power cooperation between the EU and Western Balkan countries may simultaneously increase the renewable electricity generation available for the domestic markets in the host countries and help EU Member States to achieve their renewable energy and decarbonization targets. Hence, wind power exports are a way for both the EU and the Western Balkans to provide more carbon-neutral electricity in a cost-effective manner and thus support the achievement of renewable energy and climate targets.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sharing the gains from EU–Western Balkan renewable electricity cooperation

et al. 2016

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“…The overall system model is based on an hourly spatial-temporal method as used in several previous studies [1][2] [3]. All hours of a single year are synchronously modeled in a quasi-steady-state manner and hourly outputs are reasonably validated against what is expected from actual technology outputs in terms of aggregated power generation over each hour.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We have conducted several studies that consider the potential of CSP to serve base-load power in South Africa and worldwide [1] [2]. We have also studied the potential for CSP to offset the avoided cost of diesel powered generators in terms of cost to the system [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

CSP opportunity and challenges in a national system: The WWF renewable vision for a 2030 South African electricity mix

Gauché

Backström

Brent

et al. 2016

AIP Conference Proceedings

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Abstract. The WWF proposes a renewable energy vision scenario for South Africa as an alternative to the currently mandated policy which favors additional nuclear in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Current policy also blends additional coal, hydropower, renewables and gas turbine (open and combined cycle) capacity. We validated and refined the WWF scenario showing that a renewable favored scenario potentially leads to the lowest cost system while also demonstrating better resilience. This paper focusses on the role that CSP plays within the WWF scenario. For the WWF scenario to lead to a low cost and reliable system, significant CSP capacity was needed and the optimal storage rating was high (avg. 12 hours). Through initial sensitivity analysis of the WWF scenario, we try to understand this role. Our findings suggest that provided CSP capacity is planned well, it indeed can play a pivotal role in our future. Not just in justifying a renewable path, but as essential in the best solution for South Africa in the period leading to 2030.

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“…The current CSP workforce in SA is dominated by foreigners and relies on the experience and skills of countries such as the U.S. and Spain. The novelty of CSP, combined with its potential to serve peak electricity demand and to supply baseload [4] renders it an attractive generation technology for the South African electricity system [2]. The motivation for focusing on CSP in this paper, however, lies in the resource potential far from the current transmission system and the arid environment within which CSP development takes places.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%