Tobias Fichter

Optimized Integration of Renewable Energy Technologies Into Jordan's Power Plant Portfolio

Jordan has experienced a significant increase of peak load and annual electricity demand within the last years due to economic development and population growth. The experienced growth rates are expected to continue during the next decades, making large investments in new power plant capacity necessary. Additionally, when gas supply from Egypt was interrupted several times and crude oil world market prices increased simultaneously, recent years have shown painfully that a power supply exclusively based on fossil fuel imports is subject to a very high risk and can have a strong negative impact on the national budget. Electricity-sector authorities are therefore looking for suitable solutions to keep up with the increasing electricity demand, to make Jordan more independent from fossil fuel imports, and to provide electricity at reasonable prices in the future. This paper presents a methodology for the optimized integration of renewable energy (RE) technologies into Jordans existing power plant portfolio. The core of the methodology is the mixed integer linear optimization program REMix-CEM, developed at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), which optimizes capacity expansion and unit commitment of RE and conventional power generation technologies simultaneously. After describing Jordans electricity sector and the available RE resources, the developed methodology and the results are presented. The paper shows that by the year 2022, Jordan could generate at least 47% of its electricity demand by a well-balanced mix of concentrating solar power, utility-scale photovoltaics, and onshore wind power. This scenario would maintain the security of electricity supply, absorb present growth rates of power generation costs, and make Jordan significantly more independent of fossil fuel imports.

A flexible techno-economic model for the assessment of desalination plants driven by renewable energies

AbstractOne of the major difficulties in the assessment of costs of desalination projects is that key investment parameters and operation-related parameters are project-specific data. This information is commonly not in the public domain and is generally available only to the general contractor. In addition, the interpretation of published data is complicated by the fact that often plant boundaries are not clearly indicated (e.g. if the intake cost and the pipeline cost to and from the plant are included in the evaluation). Finally, the analysis involves an elevate number of design parameters, such as plant capacity and configuration, metal and other material prices, and very site-specific conditions (seawater quality, feed water intake, and brine discharge). In the end, these issues result in difficult comparability of data from different sources about the cost of the desalinated water. This paper deals with the implementation of a flexible techno-economic model for the assessment of desalination plants ...

Renewable desalination: a methodology for cost comparison

Abstract The increasing water demand and the impacts of climate change call for the construction of a large number of new desalination capacities, causing—besides environmental impacts—a relevant amount of additional power consumption. Consequently, new power plants need to be installed and operated as base load plants in order to supply power continuously to the desalination units. As fossil fuel prices are characterized by high volatility and a clear trend upwards, the use of renewable energies allows for saving fossil fuels and therewith reducing risks related to energy price escalation along the whole desalination life cycle. However, the fluctuant nature of renewable energies conflicts with the—ideally—continuous operation of desalination plants. In contrast to technologies such as photovoltaic (PV) and wind power, which are prone to fluctuating and intermittent power generation, concentrating solar power (CSP) is able to supply firm capacity on demand and can be fully integrated into conventional po...

The role of CSP in Brazil: A multi-model analysis

MESSAGE, TIMES and REMIX-CEM are potential tools for modelling a larger penetration of variable renewable energy (VRE) into the Brazilian power system. They also allow devising the opportunities that concentrated solar power (CSP) plants offer to the power system and to the wider energy system. There are different opportunities for CSP in Brazil in the short and medium term, consolidating this technology as a feasible alternative for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation in Brazil. This work verified that CSP is a cost-effective option only under very stringent mitigation scenarios (4DS and 2DS) and when carbon capture and storage (CCS) is not available. Still, according to the findings of REMIX-CEM-B, CSP can provide firm energy and dispatchable capacity in the Northeast region of Brazil, optimally complementing wind and PV generation. Moreover, CSP can offer additional flexibility to the Northeast power system, especially during winter and after 2030.

MOREMix - Power sector optimization for Morocco

DLR developed the optimization model REMix-CEM (Renewable Energy Mix - Capacity Expansion Model). REMix CEM to generate a cost-effective expansion planning of thermal and renewable assets with respect to a use optimization (dispatch) of various types of power plants for the energy system. Working closely with the Moroccan Ministry of Energy energy scenarios are created to support Morocco in the medium to long-term energy planning to develop cost-effective, and technically feasible expansion plans for renewable energy and better coordinate the interaction between different forms of electricity generation.