Alonso Huerta, J. M. (2019). Analysis of the feasibility of PV plus battery storage in utility-scale plants in Spain [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2019.72842
The photovoltaic (PV) technology is a mature technology in Spain, a country with high sun resource. The implementation of storage solutions in the PV plants provides an opportunity to improve the performance of the PV plants, resulting in higher incomes compared to the projects without storage. Will the prices of storage solutions drop to make them economically feasible to be implemented in PV plants? What are the trends? When will prices be attractive and make the investment feasible? Lithium-ion batteries are an attractive option for electricity storage, not only for PV projects but for wind projects too. PV plants can benefit from these new opportunities and/or the technical and economic improvement of the lithium-ion battery technology, triggered by the competition of other storage technologies. PV is a mature technology in the Spanish market. For the current PV investment costs and electricity market prices, it is possible to invest without big risks as it has been proven with the latest renewable energy auction, when 1,037 MW of PV projects were awarded to different developers. On the other hand, lithium-ion battery storage systems investment needs still a huge economic effort and, though prices are expected to decrease significantly during the next years, they will still remain high. Considering only the battery system cost reduction, the levelized costs of energy (LCOE) of PV plants with lithium-ion batteries are expected to be above the electricity market price still by the year 2030. Only the combined reduction of PV plant and battery storage costs will bring the total costs to LCOE values below the electricity market price. This occurrence is expected to happen during the next decade depending on different technical and economic scenarios.