Renewable energy generation technologies such as solar, wind, and hydro continue to gain popularity worldwide. As more and more renewable generation enters the grid, the success of these clean technologies will increasingly rely on the development of long-duration energy storage solutions that suppo Contact online >>
Renewable energy generation technologies such as solar, wind, and hydro continue to gain popularity worldwide. As more and more renewable generation enters the grid, the success of these clean technologies will increasingly rely on the development of long-duration energy storage solutions that support variability in electric power generation.
"The H2FAST model is very flexible," said Michael Penev, an infrastructure systems analyst at NREL. "There is nothing inherently specific to its use for hydrogen. For example, we have used this framework for analyzing cost of long-haul trucking, ammonia production, electric vehicle charging, and more. StoreFAST targets this analysis toward energy storage to calculate the efficiency of different systems."
StoreFAST is a unique techno-economic tool in that it analyzes both energy storage systems and flexible power generation systems on a side-by-side basis. The model outputs visuals for three parameters: the LCOE, financial performance parameters, and time series charts for all financial line items. Primary inputs to the model include system power output capacity, capital costs, operations and maintenance (O&M) costs, charging electricity or fuel costs, storage duration, and capacity factors.
StoreFAST offers a consistent comparison across all technologies by analyzing key parameters describing system cost, performance, and capacity factor to calculate the net present value of all capital, operating, tax, and financing expenses divided by the system lifetime electricity sales. This definition of LCOE offers a consistent comparison of storage technologies.
A recent Joule article provides a detailed techno-economic evaluation of various storage technologies. Penev presented the findings of that study, alongside a StoreFAST demonstration, during the Department of Energy''s (DOE''s) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office''s March H2IQ Hour. Researchers at NREL used the StoreFAST model to analyze the system from 12 hours up to 7 days of storage duration. Duration rating of storage is defined as how long it would take each system to completely discharge energy while providing full-rated power to the grid.
"Our techno-economics analysis team performed a rigorous literature review and gathered industry and DOE input on today''s cost characteristics and the future cost reduction potential for eight different long-duration energy storage systems," Penev explained. "Those characteristics are condensed in the model and are conveniently available for analysts to benchmark with any other energy storage technologies of interest."
The study found that for long durations of energy storage (e.g., more than 60 hours), clean hydrogen systems with geologic storage and natural gas with carbon capture and sequestration are the lowest cost options, regardless of whether system costs are based on current or future technology. Researchers also modeled the cost of an innovative energy storage system using fuel cells designed for heavy-duty vehicles rather than conventional stationary fuel cells, and found that this system achieved 13%–20% lower LCOE.
Funding for this work was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Strategic Analysis Team, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, Solar Energy Technologies Office, and Wind Energy Technologies Office. In addition to Penev, key contributors within NREL included Chad Hunter, Evan Reznicek, and Joshua Eichman.
In addition to StoreFAST and H2FAST, NREL also offers an Electric Vehicle Infrastructure – Financial Analysis Scenario Tool (EVI-FAST) that leverages the same framework to model side-by-side scenarios of electric vehicle charging equipment. A recent Joule article reviews analysis from EVI-FAST to determine the LCOE of charging electric vehicles in the United States.
The NREL team is identifying new ways to specialize the FAST models for future analyses, including integrating the formula into Python to allow researchers to look into capacity expansion and refurbishments. Future versions of the models will be able to evaluate the degradation of different systems over time, as well as include statistics on impact analysis.
Where overnight capital cost is measured in dollars per installed kilowatt ($/kW), capital recovery factor is a fraction calculated as described above. Fixed Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs in dollars per kilowatt-year ($/kW-yr) and variable O&M costs in dollars per kilowatt-hour ($/kWh).
In the denominator 8760 is the number of hours in a year and capacity factor is a fraction between 0 and 1 representing the portion of a year that the power plant is generating power.
Fuel cost is expressed in dollars per million British thermal units ($/MMBtu) and heat rate is measured in British thermal units per kilowatt-hour (Btu/kWh). Fuel cost is optional since some generating technologies like solar and wind do not have fuel costs.
Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE, also called Levelized Energy Cost or LEC) is a cost of generating energy (usually electricity) for a particular system. It is an economic assessment of the cost of the energy-generating system including all the costs over its lifetime: initial investment, operations and maintenance, cost of fuel, cost of capital. A net present value calculation is performed and solved in such a way that for the value of the LCOE chosen, the project''s net present value becomes zero (Source: 2, 3).
Typically LCOEs are calculated over 20 to 40 year lifetimes, and are given in the units of currency per kilowatt-hour, for example USD/kWh or EUR/kWh or per megawatt-hour.
When comparing LCOEs for alternative systems, it is important to define the boundaries of the ''system'' and the costs that are included in it. For example, should transmissions lines and distribution systems be included in the cost? Should R&D, tax, and environmental impact studies be included? Should the costs of impacts on public health and environmental damage be included? Should the costs of government subsidies be included in the calculated LCOE?
Another key issue is the decision about the value of the discount rate i. The value that is chosen for i can often ''weight'' the decision towards one option or another, so the basis for choosing the discount must clearly be carefully evaluated. The discount rate depends on the cost of capital, including the balance between debt-financing and equity-financing, and an assessment of the financial risk.
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