Grid Intelligent Solar. Unleashing the Full Potential of Utility-Scale Solar Generation

SolarPower Europe launched its “Grid Intelligent Solar – Unleashing the Full Potential of Utility-Scale Solar Generation” report, which shows that solar is not only the lowest cost power source in many regions and crucial to meet EU climate targets, but also a reliable partner that helps to keep the grid stable and supports Europe’s security of supply.

The report was initiated by First Solar and produced by SolarPower Europe with support from BayWa, Tesla and SMA with the aim of providing facts and figures about the benefits of utilising low-cost utility scale solar to keep the European grid stable and reliable for the European Union to meet its 2030 renewable energy targets.

For Europe, Solar Power Europe anticipates 2-digit market growth in the coming years. Solar has the capabilities to play a major in the European Union meeting its 32% renewables target by 2030. Bloomberg NEF expects in its New Energy Outlook 2018 an 87% renewables scenario in 2050 in Europe, with 1.4 TW of solar installed, contributing around 36% of total power generation. The bulk of solar, over two thirds, is expected to come from utility-scale power plants.

To stem this 12x solar capacity growth to about 1,400 GW from around 114 GW installed in Europe end of 2017, it is crucial to enable utility-scale PV to unfold its untapped potential. Advanced solar markets need to leave the Solar 1.0 phase behind,when utility-scale PV plants has been mostly installed with the intention to maximize individual system yields. It is nowabout Solar 2.0 – that’s grid flexible PV plants integrated into the energy system. With the right market design, solar is able today to provide cost-effective flexible capacity that supports supply and demand balancing, and flexibility and grid reliability services, such as frequency regulation or ramp control. While solar can already achieve significant grid penetration economically without storage, quickly decreasing stationary battery cost enables the Solar 3.0 phase, where storage provides firm dispatchable solar capacity.-

SolarPower Europe’s “Grid Intelligent Solar - Unleashing the Full Potential of Utility-Scale Solar Generation” report was initiated by First Solar and produced with support from BayWa, Tesla and SMA with the aim of providing facts and figures about the benefits of utilizing low-cost utilityscale solar to keep the European grid stable and reliable for the European Union to meet its 2030 renewable energy targets.