Techno-Economic Feasibility of Thermal Storage Systems for the Transition to 100% Renewable Grids

Batteries are often used to overcome the intermittency of renewable energy resources, which are associated with tremendous metal depletion, environmental impact, and human health hazards. Thermal energy storage (TES) systems are often disregarded in such large-scale plans for producing electricity directly due to the losses encountered in the conversion process. In this work, however, we show, using Jordan as a case study, that the integration of TES with renewable energy systems to cover the demand is indeed feasible, and such an integration can cover 100% of the energy demand. Six different configurations were used to conduct this analysis, namely Photovoltaic (PV)-TES, PV-wind-TES, PV-concentrated solar power (CSP)-TES, PV-CSP-wind-TES, PV-CSP-Li-ion battery, and finally, PV-CSP-wind-Li-ion battery. The simulation was optimized to scan all of Jordan searching for the installation sites of the highest demand-supply matching and, at the same time, the lowest levelized cost of electricity. The optimal systems’ techno-economic parameters were then extracted and compared, showing that the integration of TES to renewable power generation systems is not only feasible and can cover 100% of the demand, but also can offset the huge need for the more common but perilous alternative, i.e., the Li-ion batteries and their associated metal depletions and hazards.