Allowing Large Penetration of Concentrated RES in Europe and North Africa via a Hybrid HVAC-HVDC Grid

Haoke Wu, Lorenzo Solida, Tao Huang () and Ettore Bompard
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Haoke Wu: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
Lorenzo Solida: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
Tao Huang: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
Ettore Bompard: Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 7, 1-17

Abstract: Renewable energy sources (RESs) and electricity demand are not evenly distributed geographically across Europe. Thus, harvesting the wind energy from the north and solar energy from the south and delivering them to the demand in central Europe is a more viable solution. However, the present High-voltage alternating current (HVAC) transmission grids have been sometimes congested; thus, High-voltage direct current (HVDC) provides another possibility along the existing HVAC infrastructure. In this paper, we propose a hybrid HVAC-HVDC grid, allowing a large penetration of concentrated RES in Europe and North Africa. More specifically, the HVDC network is constructed to transfer wind and hydro electricity from northwestern Europe and solar electricity from north Africa, while the HVAC network is used to distribute electricity within each country or among adjacent areas. To quantitatively evaluate the feasibility and relevant performances, multiple dimensions of indicators are designed. Employing several European energy scenarios up to 2050, the performances of the proposed HVAC-HVDC infrastructure are analyzed and compared. The calculation results show that compared with the pure HVAC grid, the integrated HVAC-HVDC grid can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants, leading to a further reduction in the number of deaths from air pollution. In addition, the HVAC-HVDC grids can accommodate a higher penetration of RES without causing infeasible power flows.

Keywords: hybrid HVAC-HVDC; renewable energy systems; Europe and North Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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