Profitability of hybrid power plants in Europe

Maximizing the business case for hybrid renewable power plants (HPP) selling electricity through a single grid connection requires the solution of a sizing optimization problem. We consider HPP consisting of collocated wind, solar photo-voltaic (PV) and Lithium-ion battery storage. The sizing optimization problem aims at determining the HPP design that maximizes the return of investment given a price-taker participation of the power plant in the spot market. The sizing optimization designs the wind plant (including wind capacity, hub height, wind turbine specific power, and wake losses), the PV plant (including orientation and capacity), the battery (power and energy capacity) and a penalty to mitigate battery degradation. A detailed model of the spot market is used to predict the development of renewables in a very flexible energy system and the development of spot electricity prices between 2025 and 2045. Sizing optimization results have been run on a grid over northern Europe to produce maps of the profitability and HPP potential in Northern Europe. This study shows that there is no value for battery energy storage on hybrid power plants that rely uniquely on spot market to produce revenues. The wind capacity ratio to total hybrid can be predicted by the use of the mean wind speed and the correlation between wind speed and spot price, while the overplanting level can be predicted using the solar capacity ratio.