Solar Curtailment By Czech, Israeli Authorities Places Focus on Storage For Grid

In the past week, two interesting incidents have showcased the strong need to prepare grids for solar power as it increases its share from barely 5% currently. Taken along with Wind, this share is supposed to hit 40% plus by 2040. What we are seeing instead is issues with grid integration, be it Australia, Israel or even the Czech republic.

If solar shut downs in Australia was the story last year, a new story from the Czech republic was about how almost 400 MW of solar power had to be shut down to prevent an unstable grid. Plants were shut down remotely during the Easter holiday in the Czech republic, when the electricity consumption was low, but solar plants produced a lot of energy thanks to sunny weather. CEPS, the electricity authority found itself with a surplus that it couldn’t handle.  All the surrounding countries also had their own surplus, making the option of exporting power redundant too.

That forced the shut down of 400 MW of solar plants, accounting for over 15% of the total solar capacity in the Czech republic.

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In Israel, it’s a similar issue, forcing the electricity authority to hold the issuance of licence applications for more solar plants. Instead, it has announced a reform aimed at encouraging the production of more renewable energy with storage, to reduce the pressure on the grid. By adding an annual bonus for those who can inject energy into the grid during the night, when it can be managed, the authority is incentivising storage to manage its solar surplus.

Israel is committed to generating 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030 with most coming from solar energy.

However, it has failed to make adequate progress on the target, reaching barely 10 percent in 2022, a target that was scheduled by 2020.  The challenge of upgrading the grid to accept more solar power during daytime has been cited as one of the reasons for the tardiness. Land availability and resistance to high voltage pylons is also a significant issue in the small country.

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These challenges for faster solar growth underline the need across larger power markets especially to prepare their grids for absorbing a higher share of renewable energy. For markets like India, the same issues could come to the fore by 2025 or earlier, seeing the planned additions from solar and wind to the grid. That makes progress on the government’s energy storage plans even more critical to ensure a smooth onboarding of solar power.