How can solar power be delivered at a low cost?

The combination of conventional PV modules together with thermal energy-based storage systems appears as the most affordable strategy to achieve high dispatchability of solar electricity at low cost.

Can solar power be used as a storage system?

Despite lower energy production for a given collecting area, combination of PV power plants with electrochemical storage or thermal energy storage surprisingly seem to be the most promising paths. The deployment of solar power has known a tremendous growth in the last decades.

Do complementary energy sources reduce the need for storage?

In reality, it is reasonable to assume that the existence of complementary energy sources (such as wind power, hydroelectricity, etc.) will significantly reduce the need for storage to meet a given electricity demand, without altering the conclusions achieved here considering solely solar energy.

Does reducing the cost of electrochemical storage reduce TES electricity cost?

As a result, decreasing the cost of electrochemical storage is a necessary condition toward lowering the price of PV + BESS electricity. On the other hand, the decrease in the PV + TES electricity cost will be mainly driven by the improvement in the storage roundtrip efficiency, and the decrease in the PV modules cost.

What happens if surplus energy is higher than storage capacity?

If the surplus energy is higher than the remaining storage capacity, then the difference is curtailed; In the case of hybrid systems (PVM and PVT), the electrical demand is primarily met by PV electricity.

What happens if the energy remaining in the storage is not satisfied?

If the energy remaining in the storage is not sufficient to satisfy the remaining demand, the storage is discharged to its S O C min, E S value and the remaining fraction of the energy demand is not satisfied.