Energy from the Desert: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting to Renewable Energy Future Report IEA‐PVPS T8‐01:2015 INTERNATIONAL ENERGY AGENCY PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER SYSTEMS PROGRAM Energy from the Desert: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting to Renewable Energy Future IEA PVPS Task8 External Final Report IEA-PVPS February 2015 ISBN 978-3-906042-29-9 Contributing authors Keiichi Komoto Mizuho Information & Research Institute, Inc. Japan Executive summary, & editing all chapters Tomoki Ehara E-konzal, Japan Executive summary Honghua Xu Electrical Engineering Institute, Chinese Academy of Chapter 1.1 Sciences, China Fang Lv Electrical Engineering Institute, Chinese Academy of Chapter 1.1 Sciences, China Sicheng Wang Energy Research Institute, National Development Chapter 1.1 and, Reform Commission, China Parikhit Sinha First Solar, Inc., USA Chapters 1.2 & 2.1 Edwin Cunow LSPV Consulting, Germany Chapters 1.3 & 3 Andreas Wade First Solar, Inc., Germany Chapter 2.2 David Faiman Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel Chapters 4.1 & 6.1 Kenji Araki Daido Steel Co., Ltd., Japan Chapters 4.1 & 4.2 Marc Perez Columbia University, USA Chapter 5 Karim Megherbi French Independent Expert Chapter 6.2 Namjil Enebish National University of Mongolia, Mongolia Chapter 7 Christian Breyer Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland Chapter 8 Dmitrii Bogdanov Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland Chapter 8 The compilation of this report is supported by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), Japan <Photos of cover> - Top : Topaz Solar Farm, San Luis Obispo County, CA, USA (courtesy of First Solar, Inc.) - Bottom : Longyangxia Hydropower PV station, Gonghe, Qinghai, China (courtesy of Yellow River Hydropower Company) IEA-PVPS-Task 8 Energy from the Desert: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting to Renewable Energy Future Contents Foreword Acknowledgement Executive Summary: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting Renewable Energy Future _____________________________________________________ 1 A Expectations and potential for PV power plants: Why VLS-PV? ___________________ 1 B Technical feasibility of PV power plants: VLS-PV is already feasible! _______________ 7 C Economic feasibility of PV power plants: VLS-PV can provide low-cost electricity! ____________________________________________________________ 13 D Environmental benefits of PV power plants: VLS-PV is a key for sustainable environment! _________________________________________________________ 15 E Socio-economic benefits of PV power plants: VLS-PV can contribute to sustainable social development! __________________________________________ 18 F VLS-PV visions: How VLS-PV can contribute as a major power source? ___________ 22 G Conclusions and recommendations: Directions for VLS-PV _____________________ 25 1 Technical Requirements for PV Power Plants __________________________ 29 1.1 State-of-the-art of PV power plants in China _______________________________ 29 1.2 Lessons learnt and operational status of PV plants __________________________ 44 1.3 Importance of operation and maintenance _________________________________ 49 2 Environmental and Socio-Economic Features of PV Power Plants__________ 54 2.1 Environmental issues in developing large-scale PV plants ____________________ 54 2.2 Socio-economic evaluation of localisation in photovoltaic value chains ___________ 58 3 International Tendering of PV Power Plants ___________________________ 64 3.1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 64 3.2 Tendering from a general view __________________________________________ 64 3.3 Tendering Process ___________________________________________________ 66 3.4 Common procedure for a Call for Tenders (CFT) ____________________________ 69 3.5 Issues on tendering PV power plants _____________________________________ 71 3.6 Evaluation of tenders _________________________________________________ 75 4 Potential of Concentrator Photovoltaics (CPV) _________________________ 78 4.1 State-of-the-Art of Concentrator Photovoltaics ______________________________ 78 4.2 Possible approaches for local assembly of CPV ____________________________ 82 IEA-PVPS-Task 8 Energy from the Desert: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting to Renewable Energy Future 5 Geographic Dispersion and Curtailment of VLS-PV Electricity _____________ 88 5.1 Introduction _________________________________________________________ 88 5.2 Solar resource variability at long temporal and large geographic scales __________ 89 5.3 Baseload with solar PV: a pipe dream? ___________________________________ 90 5.4 Energy storage ______________________________________________________ 91 5.5 Geographic dispersion ________________________________________________ 92 5.6 Curtailment _________________________________________________________ 93 5.7 Conclusions ________________________________________________________ 95 6 Potential of VLS-PV Development in China and Africa ___________________ 97 6.1 China as a role model to the world for the massive introduction of VLS-PV _______ 97 6.2 Development of VLS-PV systems in the West Africa ________________________ 107 7 Concept of VLS-PV Supergrid in the Northeast Asia ____________________ 121 7.1 Introduction ________________________________________________________ 121 7.2 Renewable energy development and HVDC supergrid technology _____________ 121 7.3 Overview of the HVDC supergrid development around the world ______________ 123 7.4 Potential of renewable energy of the Northeast Asia ________________________ 127 7.5 Needs of cooperation for supergrid in the Northeast Asia ____________________ 128 7.6 China’s role for future supergrid integration in the Northeast Asia ______________ 130 7.7 The Gobitec initiative and supergrid for the Northeast Asia ___________________ 131 7.8 Conclusions _______________________________________________________ 134 8 Renewable Energy Mix and Economics of Supergrid in the Northeast Asia __ 138 8.1 Introduction ________________________________________________________ 138 8.2 Methodology _______________________________________________________ 139 8.3 Scenario assumptions _______________________________________________ 140 8.4 Results ___________________________________________________________ 143 8.5 Conclusions _______________________________________________________ 148 Annex ___________________________________________________________ 152 Task8 participants ______________________________________________________ 152 Fact Sheet ____________________________________________________________ 153 IEA-PVPS-Task 8 Energy from the Desert: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting to Renewable Energy Future Foreword It is already known that the world’s very large deserts present a substantial amount of energy-supplying potential. Given the demands on world energy in the 21st century, and when considering global environmental issues, the potential for harnessing this energy is of huge import and has formed the backbone and motive for our work. The work on very large scale photovoltaic power generation (VLS-PV) systems first began under the umbrella of the IEA PVPS Task6 in 1998. After that, the new Task8 – Study on Very Large Scale Photovoltaic power generation (VLS-PV) systems was established in 1999. The scope of Task8 is to examine and evaluate the potential of VLS-PV systems, which have a capacity ranging from several megawatts to gigawatts, and to develop practical project proposals for realising VLS-PV systems in the future. Issues covered reflect the many facets VLS-PV for target groups as to political and governmental organisations as well as for e.g. institutes world-wide to provide a better understanding of these issues. Since Task8 has been established, we published our extensive reports as a series of ‘Energy from the Desert’, focusing on VLS-PV systems. The books show that the VLS-PV is not a simple dream but is becoming realistic and well-know all over the world. During our works, large scale PV systems increasingly count as a realistic energy option and have started to appear around the world in the 2000s, and have been rising substantially year on year. Now 500 MW scale PV systems are becoming reality. Here, we compile the final Task8 report, entitled ‘Energy from the Desert’ as well. This report presents comprehensively results coming from our 15-years activity, and also includes the brand-new topics on VLS-PV, e.g. PV power plants. We have recognized that very large scale solar electricity generation provides economic, social and environmental benefits, security of electricity supply and fair access to affordable and sustainable energy solutions. ‘It might be a dream, however ---‘. It was a motivation when Task8 was established in 1999. Now, we recognise that VLS-PV, e.g. PV power plant, has become one of the feasible options for large scale deployment of PV systems and renewable energy technologies. Keiichi Komoto Operating Agent, Task 8 IEA-PVPS-Task 8 Energy from the Desert: Very Large Scale PV Power Plants for Shifting to Renewable Energy Future Acknowledgement This report and out activity, Task8, was accomplished with the kind support of various organizations and people around the world. The Task8, started in 1999. Since then we published technical reports, as a series of ‘Energy from the Desert’. During the period, we organized some international symposiums, workshops and seminars in the world, e.g. Japan, China, Korea, Mongolia, Australia, Israel, France,