EDPR's Bello sees role for hybrid wind and solar in facing up to next 'crunch' issue

Investments in hybrid projects tapping both wind and solar power, will play an important role in coping with looming bottlenecks in grid transmission systems, according to a top executive with Iberian renewables giant EDP Renewables.

"In the short term, we have to work hard on our ability to bring the projects that already exist online," he said, pointing to the thorny issue of permitting.

"But I think that we need to prepare for the wave after that and I think it's the grid connection issue which is going to be our biggest bottleneck. Interconnection will be the industry's next buzzword, because there is so much to do and we know it takes a lot of time," he said.

"There are potential solutions and mitigating steps but I think we'll have a crunch coming into the next decade if we don't act quickly."

Bearing in mind the time frame needed for major infrastructure projects and the delays in putting new hardware in place, Bello described the search for efficiency gains as a starting point.

He urged distribution system operators to make their systems become flexible and identified expansion in grid-scale storage as another obvious strategy.

“There is a lot that needs to be done, including more interconnection between countries,” said Bello, whose company is headquartered in Madrid but rooted in Portugal.

Hybrid projects

Noting that Iberia, while part of the European continent, is "almost an island" when it comes to energy integration, Bello highlighted the role that hybrid projects can play.

EDPR has invested in such projects as a means of maximising production of renewable energy and contributing to grid stability.

Hybrid projects can help reduce intermittency by combining technologies that are complementary, especially if used in conjunction with energy storage technologies.

"For instance, solar panels harness sunlight during the day while wind turbines utilise wind movement (mostly) at night," Duarte said.

“Hybrids can be important in the short term, until you use up the current network available. And I think hybrids can help bridge the gap between now and having new interconnection in the future.”

In January, EDPR became the first company to connect a wind-solar hybrid park to the Spanish grid with a project adding 25,000 bifacial photovoltaic solar panels to the 14.5MW Cruz de Hierro wind farm in Avila to reach a combined installed capacity of 29MW.

Authorisation for this was given by the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDEA).

The Spanish hybrid plant followed similar projects in Portugal and Poland, and the company intends to take such projects to a much larger scale.

“In Portugal, for example, we have almost one gigawatt of projects of hybrids in the next four or five years, one gigawatt, which is just massive,” Bello told Recharge.

EDPR so far has a total 15 wind-solar hybrid projects in progress in Spain and expects to add more than 230MW of renewable capacity there as a result.

Overall, however, Bello said governments and regulatory bodies have not been moving quickly enough to make their regulatory systems responsive to the role that hybrid projects can play.

“We are pushing governments on this because it's not a technical issue, its just a regulatory issue where we find the DSO is not allowing what is technically possible,” Bello said.

Permitting problem

Bello identified permitting delays as the other big obstacle to scaling up wind power in Europe, and elsewhere.

He welcomed the attention that this matter has been given by EU institutions but warned that the initial impact of measures taken at a European level may be limited at first.

“It's a long process, and there's still a lot to do. I would say that the first thing, which is always important, is that there's political will to change, or an openness to change,” he said.

“But we need to recognise that permitting is something which starts at a very supranational level, and impacts on a project, in terms of continuing or delaying, are on very local levels. This chain of simplification will take time, and we are not there yet.”

He pointed out that hybrid projects can help ease some of the congestion with permitting too.

“Using existing grid connections, new hybrids don’t need additional environmental impact assessment procedures, reducing implementation time," he said.

Bello described himself as an “optimist” on whether significant improvement can be achieved on the permitting front, but said European projects are currently taking an average of five to nine years to put in place, and this has not begun to improve.

“It's natural that this will take time. The challenge today is to come up with some simplification rules that will make projects executable at the local level. It's not just one decision, but requires coordination between various stakeholders," he said.

Bello’s suggested that providing more financial and technological resources for permitting was a starting point, given the big increase in volumes.

Competitive industry

On the issue of supply chains for the European wind industry, Bello added his voice to the chorus of developers warning against overreaching with local content ambitions.

"The supply chain of most (wind energy) providers is global. So, we cannot think that everything is going to be built in Europe... In the current geopolitical context, that balance has shifted and in the wind sector there is more focus on the benefits of maintaining some European content. I think as long as they are competitive, and that is not an extra burden for the industry for the economy, we are fine with that," he said.

Asked about Chinese turbines in Europe, he added: "I think if there's a level playing field, we're not against it. We are a developer. Half of our investment is solar, and half is wind. So we need to source everywhere. We don't block products just because they are Chinese, or they are Indian, or from wherever.

"For some components there are some restrictions to comply with. It is a case of figuring out the right balance. But if there is a level playing field and compliance, I think European industry needs to show that it is competitive as well."