The Interplay of European Hydro Power and North African Solar Power in a Fully Renewable European Power System

TL;DR

This paper explores how European hydro power and North African solar power can be combined to create a fully renewable European power system, emphasizing strategic use of imports to balance intermittent renewable sources.

Contribution

It introduces and compares different hydro usage strategies, demonstrating how cooperation enhances renewable integration and import efficiency.

Findings

Hydro and CSP serve different balancing roles in the system.

Cooperative hydro strategies significantly increase solar import utilization.

Hydro-first strategies limit solar import potential to about 25%.

Abstract

A fully renewable European power system comes with a variety of problems. Most of them are linked to the intermittent nature of renewable generation from the sources of wind and photovoltaics. A possible solution to balance European generation and consumption are European hydro power with its seasonal and North African Concentrated Solar Power with its daily storage characteristics. In this paper, we investigate the interplay of hydro and CSP imports in a highly renewable European power system. We use a large weather database and historical load data to model the interplay of renewable generation, consumption and imports for Europe. We introduce and compare different hydro usage strategies and show that hydro and CSP imports must serve different purposes to maximise benefits for the total system. CSP imports should be used to cover daily deficits, whereas hydro power can cover seasonal imbalances. If hydro is used in a "Hydro First" strategy, only around one quarter of North African Solar Power could be exported to Europe, whereas this number increases to around 60\%, if a cooperative hydro strategy is used.