A research team in the United States recently published a paper trying to understand the future development of wind power and solar power.

The study analyzed the hourly power generation data of wind and solar power generation in 42 countries for 39 years. According to the evaluation of renewable energy power generation facilities without supporting deployment of energy storage systems, the most reliable renewable energy power generation system is wind power generation facilities: it can meet power demand during 72% to 91% of the power generation period. If a battery energy storage system with a continuous discharge time of 12 hours is deployed, the electricity demand can be met within 83% to 94% of the generation time.

The study quantified the installed capacity, energy storage capacity and utilization of additional power storage and demand management, as well as the benefits of regional aggregation. These models evaluate three scenarios (none, 3 hours, and 12 hours) for different deployments of energy storage systems.

It is worth noting that the researchers concluded that the deployment of wind and solar power generation facilities and energy storage systems (with a continuous discharge time of 3 hours) that can meet 1.5 times the power demand can meet all needs in a year.

Calderia’s previous research has shown that the United States can build a reliable power grid with 80% of its electricity coming from wind and solar power, and deploy a battery energy storage system with a continuous discharge time of approximately 12 hours. This model does not require additional construction of power grid transmission infrastructure.

Studies have found that countries and regions with larger land areas can build more reliable wind + solar power grids. For power grids without energy storage systems, every 10 times the land area increases, the ability to meet energy needs will increase by 7.2%.

This pattern began to appear when an energy storage system with a continuous discharge time of 3 hours or even 12 hours was added.

The upper left corner of the above figure shows the standard power generation without the supporting deployment of energy storage systems. It shows a significant linear increase in reliability associated with various regions of the United States. However, if an energy storage system with a continuous discharge time of 3 hours or even 12 hours is deployed, the power generation capacity of the grid will increase by 50%, and the reliability will be significantly improved.

In fact, when you look at the box at the bottom right of the above figure, the box has a 12-hour battery energy storage system and 1.5 times the standard power generation capacity. Wind power and solar power have more than 97% of the ability to meet power demand; several countries can meet 100% of the demand.

The study shows that even if the battery energy storage system is deployed, there is a gap in power demand mainly from wind power and solar power. Although fossil energy power generation facilities can be used to meet the power demand, it will become economically challenging to do so. The extraction of fuel sources (coal and natural gas) is declining.

In addition, technologies such as hydrogen, vehicle batteries, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power generation are needed to fill the weak links, so that renewable energy can be more fully utilized.

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become the main energy storage solution in modern social life. Among them, lithium iron phosphate batteries are a perfect substitute for lead-acid batteries, and are the first choice for grid-connected peak shaving, off-grid energy storage, photovoltaic energy storage, UPS, data center and other industries.

Solar power generation system with lithium battery energy storage system is a very promising clean energy.