‘Without pumped hydro, Spain should install maximum 50 GW of solar’

Large-scale, long-duration energy storage (LDES) facilities such as pumped hydro sites will be critical to support the ideal amount of solar generation capacity in Spain, as calculated by Madrid-based campaign group Ecologists in Action.

The environmental group has calculated the volume of clean energy generation capacity that would be required for a 100% renewables grid by 2030, using various scenarios.

Referring to Spain’s “PNIEC” National Energy and Climate Plan, the report stated: “It is essential to implement [energy] storage systems with a capacity similar to that proposed in the PNIEC, between 18 GW and 20 GW, to be able to fully integrate intermittent renewable generation.”

The availability of PHES sites would enable the installation of 70 GW to 72 GW of solar generation capacity by 2030, leading to PV having a 28% to 38% share of the national energy mix. Those figures are slightly below the PNIEC target of 75 GW of solar by 2030, up from around 33,600 MW today, according to data from part state-owned Spanish grid operator Red Eléctrica de España (REE).

Without PHES or other similarly large LDES options, the report stated, 50 GW would be the reasonable upper limit for Spain’s solar fleet.

An electricity model based on achieving the full PNIEC targets would involve 94 GW of solar by 2030, the Ecologists in Action report indicated, but Javier Andaluz, coordinator of the group’s energy department said, “This is not a desirable scenario as it increases [electricity] consumption by 150%, compared to 2019, primarily to generate hydrogen and export electricity. This will generate profits for energy companies while minimizing the impact on [Spain].”

Ecologists in Action used hourly REE data to simulate Spain’s future electrical system based on power plant demand; solar, wind, and solar-thermal generation capacity; energy storage capacity; and electricity export capacity to France. Hourly demand and generation data from 2016 to 2018 enabled hourly simulations of the national electrical system.

The report’s authors thus calculated the maximum energy generation expected, the volume of energy that would be consumed instantaneously and the amount that would be stored; the volume that would be exported; and the amount of energy lost due to shutdown orders or power limitations imposed by the grid operator.

Simulations based on the current level of electricity demand produced the 70 GW to 72 GW and 50 GW figures for solar outlined above.

The only scenario analyzed that would accommodate more than 90% solar and wind power penetration, in a reasonable manner according to the report, would require 20% self-consumption of the total electricity generated. That would require much of the total solar capacity envisioned to be installed in urban areas, rather than in large, ground-mounted sites.

The report’s authors claim measures such as the active management of electricity demand, to make it coincide with peak midday solar generation periods, have not been thoroughly explored.

“Our decarbonization strategy must be simultaneously bold, smart, fair, and well-planned,” states the “Installation of Renewable Energy in the Peninsular Electricity System” study.

From pv magazine España.