Thomas Telsnig

Self-Consumption of Electricity from Renewable Sources

Self-consumption can facilitate the integration of variable renewables onto the grid and lower the overall costs of the energy system through load shifting. However, the self-consumption potential is limited without further technical enhancements in storage and demand response solutions. Such solutions can both facilitate a larger share of self-consumption and lower additional costs arising from photovoltaics integration. Unleashing the full potential that lies within the transition from passive consumers to active prosumers further requires information and communications technology solutions and smart battery-charging algorithms. This is necessary to ensure the exchange of information between the grid and prosumers, and thus a smooth integration of overproduction into the grid. Self-consumption is profitable for consumers if the costs of locally produced renewables are lower than retail electricity prices. If such a parity of costs is achieved, support schemes such as feed-in tariffs could be phased out. However, a high penetration of self-consumption solutions might lead to an unfair distribution of network charges, taxes, and levies. Future energy policy should therefore consider how to best reallocate costs.

Opportunities to integrate solar technologies into the Chilean lithium mining industry – reducing process related GHG emissions of a strategic storage resource

The arid northern regions of Chile are characterized by an intensive mineral mining industry and high solar irradiance levels. Besides Chile’s main mining products, copper, molybdenum and iron, the production of lithium carbonate from lithium containing brines has become strategically important due to the rising demand for battery technologies worldwide. Its energy-intensive production may affect the ecological footprint of the product and the country’s climate targets. Thus, the use of solar technologies for electricity and heat production might constitute an interesting option for CO2 mitigation. This study aims to quantify the impacts of the lithium carbonate production processes in Chile on climate change, and to identify site-specific integration options of solar energy technologies to reduce GHG life-cycle emissions. The considered solar integration options include a parabolic trough power plant with a molten salt storage, a solar tower power plant with molten salt receiver and molten salt storage, ...