solar curtailment

Polish grid operator Polskie Sieci Elektroenergetyczne (PSE) has announced its third disconnection of renewable energy capacity this year. This time it has initiated the reduction of 1,201 MW to 1,877 MW of PV in response to oversupply.

Transmission and energy storage limitations in Texas resulted in wasted renewable energy last year.

Daniel Westerman, the CEO of the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), says that renewable curtailment in Australia has risen by approximately 40% from last year.

A new report by IEA-PVPS Task 16 looks at the use of “implicit storage” to transform intermittent renewable sources such as solar and wind into firm power generation. It shows that the total cost of the electricity system transformation could be lowered with the optimal use of capacity overbuilding and dynamic curtailment.

The northern Australian region this week added nine solar plants to the two already threatened – along with a wind farm – with having their output halted under certain conditions.

The world’s solar superpower saw the amount of new capacity added in the first three months of the year fall 24% from the same period of 2019 as 1.75 TWh of solar electricity was curtailed, but the National Energy Administration expects both statistics to improve as China exits the public health crisis.

National Renewable Energy Lab researchers conducted hourly modelling based on a future energy mix containing 55% solar power and found spring days of free electricity among the results, emphasizing the critical role energy storage will play.

Dutch transmission system operator Tennet, which also serves Germany, said the investment will be used to connect around 2 GW of renewables generation capacity to the high-voltage transmission system of the northern Netherlands.

The Australian Energy Market Operator constrained the output of several large-scale solar plants by 50% on Friday, in response to voltage fluctuations in a 220 kV network spanning the states of Victoria and New South Wales.

There was incredulity in some quarters as the federal government raised its renewables ambition another 22%, but the stellar performance of the past four years points to the new target being a realizable one.