Grids & Integration

New research from Denmark shows PV-to-methanol facilities may achieve 30% lower levelized cost of methanol through engagement in reserve markets. The researchers examined the ability of a PV-to-methanol plant to contribute to the grid in frequency containment reserves (FCR), automatic frequency restoration reserves (aFRR), and manual frequency restoration reserves (mFRR).

Texas is uniquely suited to adopt virtual power plant (VPP) technology due to its competitive, deregulated market. Its success highlights the “perverse incentive” of vertically integrated utilities in other US states to make capital expenditures without discretion to raise profits.

An international research group has utilized a newly designed coalitional game system to ensure economic fairness between members of energy communities. The game system considers different types of prosumers relying on stand-alone and combinations of solar and storage.

Novel research from Germany and the USA has analyzed the impact of heat pump (HP) integration on the ability of day-ahead load forecasting in energy communities. Using different models, the scientists have also investigated whether HP loads should be forecasted separately from the rest of the household or both together.

BloombergNEF says in a new report that solar and wind must drive most emissions cuts before 2030 to stay on track for net-zero by 2050. Its net-zero scenario targets a combined solar and wind capacity of 31 TW by 2050.

Eight of the 10 transmission corridors proposed by the US Department of Energy (DoE) could facilitate transmission between grid regions. One would expand transmission within the Mid-Atlantic’s PJM grid region, and one would expand transmission in the Northern Plains.

Scientists have investigated different techno-economic scenarios for using hydrogen storage in combination with hydropower and pumped hydro storage in Switzerland. They have found that hydrogen storage plays no major role under most conditions.

A group of scientists in Thailand has outlined a new approach to avoid oversizing and overvoltage in energy markets applying volt-watt droop curtailment strategies. The novel methodology leads to a reduction in a PV system’s net present value but also increases its levelized cost of energy.

Renew Home, a partnership between Google Nest Renew and OhmConnect, aims to expand from 3 GW of electrical energy use to 50 GW by 2030.

BSES Rajdhani Power’s new 20 MW/ 40 MWh project is India’s first utility-scale, standalone battery energy storage system to secure regulatory approval under Section 63 of the Indian Electricity Act, 2003. The project is supported by a concessional loan from the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP).