What are the biggest hidden costs of PV power plants?
Photovoltaic power generation fluctuates greatly, the power generation efficiency is greatly reduced in cloudy and rainy days, and it is almost impossible to generate electricity at night. Therefore, various places have required that new energy power stations must be equipped with energy storage equipment, which can be stored first and then sold, so as to maintain stability. Zhang Fengyang, general manager of Jingneng Clean Energy Power, said that this constitutes the largest hidden cost of photovoltaic power plants. Zhang Fengyang said: "There is no such mandatory standard yet, but each local government has a trend to require new energy companies to build energy storage. The core purpose of building energy storage is to reduce the impact of unstable output on the power grid and influence."
Energy storage devices are currently mainly batteries. Although the price of lithium batteries in my country has been declining in recent years, for photovoltaic power plants, the price of battery pack + inverter still accounts for about 30% of the total cost, which is similar to that of photovoltaic modules. Therefore, a number of photovoltaic companies have previously formed alliances to jointly resist the construction of energy storage equipment.
Why do photovoltaic power plants bear the connection cost?
Another hidden cost of photovoltaic power plants is the connection cost or grid connection cost, that is, the cost of transmission equipment from the power station to the grid. From the perspective of traditional power plants, grid companies are generally responsible for access. However, an industry insider told reporters that photovoltaic power plants generally bear the cost of access by themselves. An industry insider said: "We need to wait for the power grid to be completed. It will definitely take time from planning to completion of the power grid, and not every power station can enter the power grid planning, so in most cases, we have to build it ourselves first."
The access equipment mainly includes transmission lines and booster stations, and the cost mainly depends on the location of the photovoltaic power station. Some photovoltaic power stations are far away from the main power grid, so it is necessary to build various booster stations one by one, and the cost will be relatively high. An industry insider said: "The cost of grid connection accounts for about 5% of the construction of the power station, and there are 3% to 10% of the cost, depending on the location of the power station and other conditions. Some lines are very long and the voltage level is very high. High, it has to be taken into account. There are also very low, 1% costs, and the location is particularly good, most of them are actually around 5%.”
How to reduce hidden costs?
Experts predict that the cost pressure of energy storage is expected to ease significantly in the future. According to Han Xiaoping, chief information officer of China Energy Network, my country is a big country in battery production and consumption, which can reduce costs through cross-industry gradient utilization. Han Xiaoping said: "The new battery is installed in the car. When the energy storage efficiency decreases and the car is scrapped, the battery can be taken out and we use it as an energy storage power station."
To reduce access costs, in addition to relying on technological progress and the scale effect brought about by the increase in photovoltaic power generation projects, a more effective way is to strengthen the coordination between photovoltaic enterprises and the power grid. Han Xiaoping believes that if the two communicate in advance and try to optimize the layout of the power station, photovoltaic power generation will be more competitive. Han Xiaoping introduced: "In recent years, the cooperation between some enterprises is still very insufficient. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the mutual integration between enterprises, establish the energy Internet, and break the interest relationship of property rights. Through new technologies, we will finally be able to integrate in the Together, we will increase the proportion of clean energy.”