Dutch renewable energy developer Photon Energy recently announced that it has secured a grid-scale solar + energy storage project in South Australia. The company hopes to adopt a new technical solution, using the site to deploy a 300MW solar power plant with an installed capacity of 300MW and a long-term thermal energy storage system with an energy storage capacity of 3.6GWh.

(The 1MW energy storage system demonstration project deployed by RayGen in New York, Victoria has been in operation for six years)

Photon Energy is deploying a hybrid energy technology of concentrating solar (CSP) system + photovoltaic (PV) system developed by Australian energy developer RayGen. RayGen calls it "PV Ultra" and combines it with a kind of It is a combination of "Thermal Hydro" long-term thermal energy storage technology.

"PV Ultra" technology uses solar power systems and concentrated solar systems to generate electricity and heat. The Thermal Hydro thermal energy storage system uses reservoirs of different temperatures to store energy: a solar power system and grid electricity are used to cool one reservoir, and a concentrated solar system is used to heat another reservoir. Then the temperature difference is used to generate electricity, and the round-trip efficiency is 70%.

This technology has been used in a 1MW demonstration project in Victoria, Australia, and has been in operation for six years.

Photon Energy said that in the preliminary design of this project deployed in South Australia, solar power generation facilities with an installed capacity of 300MW will be deployed and connected to the grid. Although Photon Energy and RayGen have stated in a previous press release that the project can provide up to about 17 hours of continuous discharge time, the 3.6GWh energy storage capacity released by Photon Energy a few days ago is equivalent to 24 hours of continuous discharge time.

Photon Energy hopes to open and operate this hybrid energy project before the end of 2023.

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has become the main energy storage solution in modern social life. Among them, lithium iron phosphate battery is a perfect replacement for lead-acid batteries, and it is 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.