Enhancing solar energy generation and usage: orbiting solar reflectors as alternative to energy storage

Despite the growth of the solar energy sector, its utilization for energy provision has remained largely limited to hours of daylight. Previous studies have considered the integration of energy storage (ES) with solar farms to charge up using solar energy during daytime and to discharge in other hours. Alternatively, recent advancement in space technology enabling the deployment of orbiting solar reflectors (OSRs) opens a new vista of possibilities for delivery of clean energy services in an environmentally friendly manner. OSRs can provide additional illumination from space to identified large-scale solar farms on the Earth at critical hours of the day thereby enhancing energy generation and extending production hours of the solar farms. This paper investigates enhancing the solar farm output using OSRs as an alternative to energy arbitrage using ES and examines the short-term (annual) profitability and long-term (lifetime) economic viability of investment in either OSR or ES as integration option for the solar PV farm. Studies investigate different cases regarding both technologies as integration options for the solar farm under different market conditions regarding hourly electricity price variation. The obtained results demonstrate that irrespective of the market conditions, the solar farm receives better economic value when integrated with OSR

Economic Feasibility of Alternative Technological Concepts to Harness Renewable Energy from Space

The provision of global renewable energy services is a key challenge of the 21st century. Space sector resources have contributed immensely to the advancement of the information and communications industries, environmental monitoring and Earth observation and hold enormous potential to enhance the provision of global renewable energy services. Energy from space technologies have been assessed in the research literature using two distinct technological concepts namely orbiting solar reflectors (OSR) and solar power satellites (SPS). However, previous studies have discussed these two technological concepts separately, focusing on either one of them. In this paper, we analyse the long-term economic feasibility of OSR and SPS for utility-scale electricity generation of approximately 2 GW under a trend of falling Earth to orbit transportation costs. We evaluate their net present value and assess the conditions for which these technologies will become economically viable. We also discuss the prospects of a reduction in Earth to orbit transportation costs and discount rate to improve the economic feasibility of energy from space technologies

A reference architecture for orbiting solar reflectors to enhance terrestrial solar power plant output

Orbiting reflectors offer the possibility of illuminating large terrestrial solar power plants to enhance their output, particularly at dawn and dusk when their output is low but energy spot prices can be high. While the concept of orbiting solar reflectors has been considered in various forms in the past, there is now a timely overlap of rapidly growing global demand for clean energy services, falling launch costs through reusability and the emergence of in-orbit manufacturing technologies to enable the fabrication of large, ultra-lightweight space structures. This paper provides an end-to-end analysis of a possible minimum initial architecture to deliver such global clean energy services. The analysis will cover orbit selection, attitude control requirements, structural analysis and economical viability, followed by a discussion on regulatory issues, future improvements and further applications

Carbon taxation and feed-in tariffs: evaluating the effect of network and market properties on policy effectiveness

This paper evaluates how the effect of introducing a carbon emission tax and/or feed-in tariffs on capacity expansion decisions of generating companies varies depending on the number and size of competing firms and technical conditions of the network. To do so, it uses a Nash–Cournot model of the electricity market. This model is then applied to the IEEE 6-bus network. We study three cases: one with only a carbon tax consistent with current carbon prices; one with only a feed-in tariff consistent with current US levels, and one with simultaneous carbon taxation and feed-in tariff. We show that, at least in our case, the quantity of renewable capacity expansion and the electricity prices depend more significantly on the technical conditions of the network and the number of competitors in the market than it depends on the presence of economic penalties or incentives. We also show how interactions between imperfectly competitive markets and physical networks can produce counterintuitive results, such as an increase in consumer prices as a result of a reduction in network congestion. Our results imply that no two countries would experience the same effects from a policy on carbon tax and feed-in tariff if their electricity market does not have similarities in technical and competitive conditions

Modelling and analysing the impact of flexible technologies on market-based generation investment planning

In recent times, the value of flexibility potentials available at the demand side in addressing techno-economic challenges associated with the decarbonisation of power systems has attracted notable interest from governments, industry and academia. Notwithstanding these interests, its impacts on long-term power system planning has only been investigated using system cost minimisation models. Such models are inherited from the era of vertically integrated power utilities and cannot represent the profit-oriented decisions of the liberalised electricity industry. Available market-based generation investment planning models in technical literature neglect the time-coupling effects in their operational timescale and for this reason are inherently unable to integrate the operation of non-generating flexible technologies. This thesis investigates the impacts of demand flexibility on the long-term investment decisions of a self-interested generation company under different market designs. The thesis proposes a novel time-coupling, bi-level optimisation model which accounts for the energy shifting flexibility of the demand side. This model is further enhanced to also incorporate the operation of reserve markets with demand side participation, thereby presenting a jointly cleared energy and reserves market. This model is solved using rigorous mathematical techniques involving the formulation of a Mathematical Program with Equilibrium Constraint (MPEC) problem and the transformation of the MPEC problem to a Mixed Integer Linear Program (MILP) problem. Different case studies have been carried out to investigate the impact of demand flexibility participating in either only the energy market or in both the energy and reserves market. These case studies demonstrated the similarities in impact of different flexible technologies on the optimal generation investment decisions and enhancing the profit earned by the investing company. The thesis also investigates different scenarios regarding the flexibility of the demand side, market design options and strict carbon targets. The thesis findings show the dependence of the impact of demand flexibility on the optimal investment decisions of the examined generating company on: (i) the market(s) in which demand flexibility participates and (ii) the market design option considered.Open Acces

Enhancing terrestrial solar power using orbiting solar reflectors

The delivery of global clean energy services represents a key challenge for the 21st century. In order to deliver such services, it is clear that large-scale solar power farms will continue to grow both in number and size. In principle, ultralight membrane orbiting solar reflectors can illuminate large-scale solar power farms during the critical dawn/dusk hours of the day, enhancing the utility of terrestrial solar power. The key advantage is that only a relatively modest mass needs to be delivered to Earth orbit. This paper discusses the technical challenges associated with the development, deployment and operation of such a space-based energy service. Business development models are discussed along with regulatory issues and finally an integrated technology demonstration roadmap is presented

Enhancing Terrestrial Solar Power Using Orbiting Solar Reflectors

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