In the first five months from early June to the end of October 2017, the price of the successful bidder dropped rapidly, and the winning price of the bid decreased by nearly 50% under certain boundary conditions. The prominent price advantage and the technological advantages of adjustable peak make CSP power already able to compete with traditional thermal power in terms of market competitiveness.
Old Calorific Power Market In Spain, the electricity subsidy was too high and the government finance was tight. As a result, the government canceled the subsidy for the new CSP and reduced the subsidy for the CSP and imposed an energy tax on this Led lead to decline in the Spanish market. After the substantial decline in the price of solar thermal power, the Spanish market will usher in a new life?
Spain has already put into operation the overall success of the thermal power station First of all, let's look at the performance of Spain's operating CSP plants. Luis Crespo, president of the European Association of Solar Thermal Power Generation (ESTELA), said: "When the plant is put into operation, it generally takes more than one year to learn the transition period, which can basically reach the expected level after about a year and a half of the transitional period , Each year to ensure that the power generation is about 5 billion kWh, the annual total amount of solar thermal power generation in Spain accounted for about 2.5% of the total.
The thermal storage system gives CSP technology advantages that other renewable energy technologies do not have - providing a more stable power supply to the grid with adjustable peak capability. Second, it can ease and balance the impact of multiple renewable energy sources on the grid. Approximately one-third of the installed capacity of the Spanish solar thermal power station is equipped with an energy storage system. According to nearly a decade of power data from the Spanish transmission system operator (TSO), Spain's CSP plants are generally stable each year. Crespo said, "TSO has been very much in favor of the operation of solar thermal plants, which can meet 4% of the electricity demand in Spain in summer, but in some cases, we can exceed expectations by supplying 8% or even 10% of the electricity "
Photo-thermal power generation with higher power quality, access to other renewable energy more Internet access hours. Spanish company ACSCobra reorganized its renewable energy assets (including 16 wind farms and 3 solar thermal plants) to a new company SaetaYield. SaetaYield's total installed capacity of more than 1GW power station, of which wind power installed capacity of 778MW, accounting for 75%; solar thermal power plant installed capacity of 250MW, only 25%. However, in the first three quarters of 2017, solar thermal power station generated 1,413 GWh, accounting for 41% of the total.
There is still no reason in Spain to restart the solar thermal project
In September this year, ACWAPower and Shanghai Electric Corps won the 700MW solar-thermal power generation project at Phase 4 of the Mohammed Bin Ras Al Khaimah Solar Park in Dubai with the lowest tender price of 7.3 cents / kWh. The project consists of a 100MW tower power plant and three installed capacity of 200MW trough power plant design heat storage duration of 10 to 15 hours, of which the price has been successfully refreshed Dubai CSP record minimum electricity prices.
In fact, ACWAPower has not been refreshed for the first time in the CTI record. About five years ago, when bidder quotations reached 30 cents / kWh, ACWA successfully won the NoorI project in Morocco at a very low price of 19 cents / kWh. In the bidding process for the Bokpoort project in South Africa, the project was also won at a minimum electricity price which is about 28% lower than that of the competitors. Now, both of these projects have been successfully financed and have already been successfully put into operation. However, it is not surprising that the minimum electricity prices that once broke the record now appear to be the norm.
In mid-November, Paddy Padmanathan, chief executive of ACWA Power, Saudi Arabia, publicly stated that similar low prices could reappear in the case of similar commercial financing rates. In areas where solar DNI resources are more advantageous, prices below $ 7.3 per kWh are not nonsense. Crespo also agreed with this view.
Recently, at a webinar organized by the World Bank, Paddy said once again that "the average cost of capital financed by Dubai projects is around 5.5%, and it is this financing cost that led to the birth of ultra-low electricity tariffs, while commercial financing in Spain With interest rates on the same footing, I have reason to believe that we have the ability to build similar solar-thermal projects at similar tariff levels in Spain with similar financing conditions and slightly better solar energy resources than the UAE. "
Jenny Chase, Bloomberg New Energy's solar industry analyst, dismissed a series of very low prices in 2017 as she responded by e-mail. "All the players in the renewable energy sector were extremely aggressive, It is understandable that if the quotes are not low enough then the odds will be small and there will be more chance of attracting investment only if the bid is successful, even if there is no chance of failure.
For Spain, however, even a fraction of seven cents CTA does not seem attractive enough. In order to meet the 2020 renewable energy target, Spain currently uses a large amount of photovoltaic and wind power at cheaper prices, resulting in excess supply. Recently, the winning price of a wind power project has been as low as 4.3 cents / kWh. It is estimated that by 2018, the installed capacity of photovoltaic power in Spain will reach 1.4GW. At present, there are enough coal-fired and gas-fired power plants that can serve as peaking power for intermittent renewable energy.
"There is no reason for Spain to build a new CSP plant now because it has shown an oversupply situation," Crespo said.
The future energy structure is facing a transition Spain has not yet promulgated a clear plan
At present, thermal power can play the role of peak shaving flexibility to compensate for the intermittent shortcomings of wind power and photovoltaic. However, to meet its emission reduction targets, Spain had to immediately phase out coal-fired power generation and cancel gas-fired power generation within a decade. Thermal power generation with thermal storage system can provide flexible and reliable power for the grid, which can be used as an alternative peak power supply for traditional power plants. However, Spain's Department of Energy has yet to issue any plans on how to deal with the problems posed by the shutdown of these plants.
Crespo said: "I think all coal-fired power plants will be decommissioned within the next five years and many gas-fired combined cycle power plants will be phased out by 2030. And no one knows if we will continue to operate nuclear power plants, which currently account for about Nearly 20% of Spain's total power generation. "
Crespo concludes: "In planning the nearly 10 years of Spain's power development in the coming years, the energy sector should note that our existing power generation units will not last until 2036, and we will face over-development of wind power and photovoltaic Problem. "He stressed that agencies need to address this issue as soon as possible in order to achieve flexible scalability of power to make up for intermittent weaknesses in wind power and PV in the existing grid. In the future wind power photovoltaic continues to expand installed capacity, the traditional power plant is gradually eliminated under the circumstances, increase the installed capacity of solar thermal power station or an alternative way.