Energy storage in Spain: Forecasting electricity excess and assessment of power-to-gas potential up to 2050

Abstract

Innovative technologies and strategies to decarbonize electricity generation, transport, and heat supply sector are key factors to achieve the global climate targets set by international organizations. One of these strategies implies a significant increase of the share of renewable electricity in the energy mix. Given the intermittent behaviour of renewable energy sources (RES), a detailed assessment of future energy scenarios is required to estimate the potential surplus in electricity production. To facilitate the penetration of renewable energy sources up to significant shares, massive long-term electricity storage technologies must be considered. Among these technologies, powerto-gas (PtG) systems may foster the fossil fuels switch by providing storage of surplus renewable electricity in the form of hydrogen or synthetic natural gas. Thus, this energy carrier could be reconverted to electrical power to cover peak demand periods. In this work, a study of the prospective Spanish scenario is presented and the potential of PtG technology is assessed in terms of expected renewable surplus. We found that the annual electricity surplus for 2050 might vary between 1.4 TWh and 13.5 TWh, and the

Projecting cost development for future large-scale power-to-gas implementations by scaling effects

“…When studying the transition of the energy system to RES in Spain by 2050, Bailera et al [22] discovered a demand for PtG storage capabilities for excess RES of 7-19.5 GWel. For a complete decarbonization of the energy system this demand could be even more than four times higher, according to Lisbona et al [23].…”

Power-to-Gas: Analysis of potential decarbonization of Spanish electrical system in long-term prospective

“…In literature, several studies quantify Power to Gas potential under future scenarios of national energy systems in which RES installed capacity is high enough to frequently lead to electricity surplus situations [20][21][22][23]. However, when these scenarios are tried to be foreseen, the strong uncertainty coming from economics, regulatory policies and technology evolution leads to disputable results.…”

“…CHP operates at full load most of the time and cannot be regulated, since over 600 companies (mostly chemical, paper, and food industries) produce 50% of CHP power production. Because of the 2008 financial crisis, the production was slowed down, and therefore the Spanish CHP association expects that installed capacity remains constant at 6.7 GW for the next years [32]. So, we consider that CHP installed capacity, operating hours and distribution throughout the year keep unchanged from 2016 data.…”

Techno-economic feasibility of power to gas–oxy-fuel boiler hybrid system under uncertainty

“…The high share of RES in the electricity production system will lead to fluctuating periods of surplus power that could limit the operational predictability and flexibility of the electricity network [3]. Thus, energy storage technologies are imperative in future electricity systems to manage intermittent renewable energy [4,5]. Current energy storage techniques (pumped hydroelectric storage, compressed air energy storage, flywheels, electrochemical storage, thermal energy storage) present limited potentials for large scale applications due to special location requirements, short storage periods, slow discharge times or low energy storage densities [3].…”