Flexible bioenergy supply for balancing fluctuating renewables in the heat and power sector—a review of technologies and concepts

Abstract

Today bioenergy plays a major role in the renewable energy provision, for heat and power and for liquid biofuels as well. With an increasing share of renewables on the one hand side and a limited availability of biomass on the other hand, the provision of bioenergy has to consider the demands of the future energy system with high shares of fluctuating wind and solar power. This includes new and improved technologies and concepts for biogas, biomethane, and liquid and solid biofuels, which are discussed in the following, while for the electricity sector, the demand for more flexible provision might take place in the years to come; for more flexible heat provision, the transition is expected in a longer time frame. For their market implementation adopted regulatory framework and price signals from electricity markets are necessary. Review

Current Developments in Production and Utilization of Biogas and Biomethane in Germany

“…The flexibility premium supports the partial refinancing of the required investments for a flexible plant operation. The major part of this is the incentive to provide additional installed electrical capacity for a demand-oriented electricity generation [29]. Additional income can be achieved by a shift of the electricity generation in times with higher prices and/or the provision of ancillary services.…”

“…The flexibilization of existing biogas plants has increased due to the amendment of the EEG in 2014 [29]. The number of applications for the flexibility premium strongly increased especially in June/July in 2014, which can be interpreted as anticipatory effect as a result of great uncertainty concerning the EEG amendment in 2014 [28] -current plant register with reports of recent and planned registration for flexibility premium provided by BNetzA as of April 2017 [8].…”

Facilitating Regional Energy Transition Strategies: Toward a Typology of Regions

“…All considered forms of biomass share the characteristic that they can be stored as fuels and further processed to electricity and heat when demand for energy services exists. This is considered important for regulating fluctuations from wind and solar energy [66]. Summing up, all energy sources can be used in all energy context types, but their significance in the generic strategies for each type differs.…”

Smart municipal energy grid within electricity market

“…In the article [11] a flexibility of heat and electricity provision from the biomass plants has been accessed for Germany but not for the case of Republic of Serbia, therefore one case study on City of Sabac will be elaborated. A technical feasibility study including technoeconomic analysis of combined heat and power plant fuelled with biogas has been for plant "Voganj" in Ruma, Serbia [12].…”