Hybrid power plants aim to achieve the best of both worlds. These two bests are abundant green energy, and battery storage to tame capricious wind and solar energy. Hybrids achieve both goals in a single installation. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory made a remarkable announcement on The Conversation website on April 25, 2022.
Phenomenal Growth of U.S. Hybrid Power Plants
The Berkeley team correlated the data and discovered a staggering 1,400 gigawatts of proposed generation and storage projects have applied to connect to the grid. That’s more than all existing U.S. power plants combined!
The largest new player continues to be solar. However a third of all proposed new connections are hybrid solar plus battery storage. Therefore the question arises how best to integrate these hybrid power plants in the existing grid.
Role of Hybrids in United States Energy Future
But we should temper our enthusiasm by remembering a sobering fact. Only about one in four new plants proposed between 2010 and 2016 achieved commercial operation according to the Berkeley team. They investigated further and deduced the following:
1… Combining generation and storage on one site yields construction savings. Greater income down the line may justify higher price.
2… However, there are tradeoffs between locations with greatest renewable energy resources, and regions where demand and tax credits are highest.
3… Greater battery storage capacity improves generator cost efficiency. But there’s little point in storing more energy than demand needs.
4… Hybrids can operate in a closed cycle. However, there’s no reason why they should not store energy from other sources.
5… Hybrid also incorporates small home and business installations. More thought needs to go into integrating them in the system.
Therefore hybrids are just the beginning, with more on the way the Berkeley scientists conclude. These newbies are redefining the U.S. energy system, although the way forward is still evolving.
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