Energy Storage Considerations in Photovoltaic Central Station Utility Applications

摘要

The nominal effects of energy storage on cost and performance goals for solar photovoltaic conversion systems intended for large-scale electric utility applications are studied. Specifically, central station photovoltaic power plants having co-located energy storage systems are examined with respect to dispatch modes that either dedicate the energy storage to the plant operation to achieve a given plant capacity factor or treat the energy storage as a utility system asset to be dispatched independent of the solar system. Resultant system economics are treated parametrically with respect to photovoltaic array efficiency, average solar insolation, and energy storage efficiency. It is concluded that dedicated energy storage imposes a severe economic and performance penalty on the allowable cost of photovoltaic arrays for intermediate load utility applications. (ERA citation 04:000434)