Concentrating Solar Thermal Energy

9Hybrid PV–CSP Systems

Alexis VOSSIER¹ and Joya ZEITOUNY^1,2

¹ PROMES-CNRS, Font-Romeu, France

² C2N, CNRS, Paris-Saclay University, Palaiseau, France

9.1. Introduction

Despite the extremely low cost of photovoltaic energy in 2020 (recent announcements of PV power plant manufacturers relate to projects characterized by resale prices significantly below 0.03 EUR/kWh), the massive deployment of photovoltaic electricity is increasingly confronted with the lack of dispatchability of this technology: nowadays, it is obvious that not being able to match the photovoltaic power generation with power demand leads to many power grid management difficulties, as the share of PV technology in the energy mix becomes significant. This is notably reflected by difficulties in managing production (solar power being so-called “fatal”, it is injected in the power grid when sunshine allows it, to the detriment of the “dispatchable” power sources nuclear, coal and gas). When photovoltaic power generation is a significant fraction of the power demand, operators may be in an overproduction situation (production and consumption balance must necessarily be maintained in order to ensure the stability of the power grid), which may lead to negative resale prices on the power markets. This regularly occurs in Germany, where the penetration rates of photovoltaic solar and wind power reached more than 30% of the total power consumption in the country.

The massive deployment of variable renewable energy sources ...