Over the past week, McKinsey has commissioned a report on behalf on the LDES council in support of adopting 24/7 clean Power Purchase Agreements. These PPAs will be crucial as the penetration of renewable energy sources increase. The intermittency of these power sources creates a need to balance supply and demand, 24/7 clean PPAs can reduce the need for fossil fuels, increase decarbonization, and improve risk management.
To read the full report (LDES Council: A path towards full grid decarbonization with 24/7 clean Power Purchase Agreements), download here.
Why “24/7” clean power means more than “100% renewables” – Renew Economy –
– May 10, 2022 –
“For 24/7 Clean PPAs, the focus – and not entirely surprisingly, considering the organisation behind the report – is on long duration energy storage, or LDES.
That’s partly because LDES offers much more flexibility of supply; and partly because, at the moment, li-ion batteries cost too much. The report cites the levelised cost of electricity from a wind, solar and lithium-ion battery hybrid system as more than $US200/MWh “in most regions.”
By contrast, it argues that solutions based on “novel” energy storage technologies like LDES are expected to reduce the cost of 24/7 renewable power to less than $US100/MWh in the near future – if deployment accelerates.”
To read the full article, click here.
Long-duration energy storage ‘for everyone’ says US DoE as McKinsey publishes advice to corporates – Energy Storage News –
– May 16, 2022 –
“The report examines how corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) need to move towards enabling the 24/7 use of renewable energy. Without this, real decarbonisation is not possible, and round-the-clock renewables will not be possible without LDES, the report argues.
24/7 clean power PPAs measure hourly use of electricity as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, enabling customers to match their power consumption with renewable energy generated in near real-time.
However, most corporate PPAs today simply match that supply and demand over annualised averages, which the authors claim only achieves decarbonisation of 40% to 70%.
In other words, while today’s corporate PPAs allow for increased shares of renewable energy to be used, there’s a fixed limit on how much emissions reduction benefit they can offer.”
To read the full article, click here.
Operators should switch to new 24×7 PPAs, says energy storage group – Data Center Dynamics –
– May 18, 2022 –
“Data center operators are using PPAs to pay for renewable energy from solar and wind farms using PPAs, but these only produce a limited amount of decarbonization in the grid, because the utility has to supply energy when the sun and wind don’t provide power – and this often comes from fossil sources. Under new 24×7 PPAs, data center operators and other businesses would pay the utility for renewable energy every hour of the day, driving the decarbonization of the grid much faster, according to a report written by McKinsey for the Long Duration Energy Council (LDES).”
To read the full article, click here.