Electricity storage needs for the energy transition: An EROI based analysis illustrated by the case of Belgium. (1st June 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Limpens, Gauthier; Jeanmart, Hervé
• Is Part Of: Energy. Volume 152(2018)
• Page Start: 960
• Page End: 973
• Publication Date: 2018-06-01
• Subjects: Energy storage -- EROI -- Power to gas -- Seasonal storage -- Energy transition -- Energy management; Power resources -- Periodicals; Power (Mechanics) -- Periodicals; Energy consumption -- Periodicals; 333.7905
• DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2018.03.180
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0360-5442

Abstract

Abstract: To face climate changes and energy dependency, governments encourage their industries and communities to increase the share of renewable energy (RE). However, the RE production is mostly inflexible. The risk of unmatching electricity market grows. Tools such as power plant flexibility, import/export, demand side management, storage and RE curtailment are developed to handle this problem. This study focuses on the energy storage mix required for the energy of the electricity system to high RE shares. An hour based model is developed in order to optimise the renewable energy and storage assets by maximising the energy return on investment (EROI) while respecting power fluxes constraints. The model is used to quantify the storage needs for the energy transition of Belgium. An in-depth analysis is performed for four scenarios. Depending on the RE deployment and nuclear share, EROI between 5 and 10.5 are obtained. Large scale storage is required as soon as the energy mix has more than 30% of RE. With more than 75% of RE, power to gas becomes unavoidable. This study highlights that curtailment can be limited to less than 5% of RE production. These values are the result of the optimum between increasing storage, RE capacity and curtailment. Highlights: A model for the energy transition based on the optimization of the EROI. Optimum trade-off between RE production, storage capacity, and curtailment. Storage becomes unavoidable when the RE production share is higher than 30–40%. Power to gas is required when the inflexible production share is higher than 70%.