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Comment by pfdietz

1 year ago

If there is otherwise curtailed wind/solar, the RTE doesn't matter very much, since the energy is otherwise thrown away.

I know, but the model above suggests massively overbuilding solar and wind to convert it to hydrogen for storage. That overbuild isn't "free" and I can't see how you can get to €50eur/MWh at the moment for baseload esque power.

  • The overbuild isn't free, but it's serving two complementary purposes: allowing direct solar/wind to supply enough power even when sun/wind are lower, and to allow production of hydrogen when there's too much power. You get two benefits at a cost that is less than the sum of the cost of doing them independently. The optimization reflects the benefit of this synergy.

  • The overbuild isn't free but the cost of (renewable) generation is so cheap compared to storage that it's most often cheaper to just build too much.