The cost of photovoltaic power generation with energy storage in El Salvador

A model is proposed to optimize the cost of firm PV generation. The battery, a short-duration storage option, is mainly employed for diurnal storage. The hydrogen system (long-duration storage) primarily caters to inter-seasonal storage. The incorporation of long-duration storage lowers the system premium by 10%.

Conclusion As the energy system transitions towards deep decarbonization, photovoltaic (PV) technology has emerged as the preferred choice for electricity generation in many regions due to its green and clean attributes and technological maturity.

However, the stochastic and volatile nature of PV output makes its performance in meeting load demand inferior to that of conventional thermal power. To reliably meet the load year-round, an energy system relying solely on PV as its energy source requires the deployment of energy storage capable of storing large quantities of electricity.

If dispatchable generators, such as combined heat and power units, are introduced to substitute for these activities of the battery during these periods, its size could be halved, thereby further reducing the overall cost of delivering firm PV generation. Fig. 7. Power balance in the PBH hybrid system.

Dowling et al. discovered that hydrogen storage and batteries could improve the reliability and affordability of electricity systems with high penetration of renewables, suggesting that the reliance on storage increases with the inclusion of more years of meteorological and load data in the optimization model.

As the energy storage market continues to expand, the costs of both short- and long-duration storage are expected to steadily decrease in the future owing to economies of scale and learning curves. On this account, this subsection analyzes the changes in asset deployment and system economics resulting from the reduction in storage costs.