Photovoltaics sees storage as essential to have adequate prices

The president of the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (Unef), Rafael Benjumea, has said that, in the current context of low electricity prices, storage and green hydrogen play a fundamental role in finding the appropriate price balance for investments. in photovoltaics.

Benjumea inaugurated this Wednesday in Madrid the II Summit on Storage and Green Hydrogen for Solar Energy, organized by Unef, which is held in a context of slowing growth in self-consumption and associated storage systems, in addition to a price situation of electricity to historic lows, as indicated by the photovoltaic employers’ association in a statement.

Benjumea has said that, for these reasons, “storage and green hydrogen play a fundamental role in finding the appropriate price balance that continues to guarantee competitiveness that attracts industry and favors citizens, while ensuring the necessary investments to achieve the objectives contemplated in the Integrated Energy and Climate Plan”.

He explained that “the storage associated with solar energy allows us to decarbonize the electrical ‘mix’ during the hours when there is no sun.”

For this reason, he has pointed out that “there is no doubt that in the coming years batteries and other energy storage systems are going to be as essential as the solar panels themselves, both in large-scale installations and for self-consumption.”

During the first day of the Summit, Unef and the experts who participated stressed that it is necessary to eliminate the barriers that slow down the deployment of storage, facilitating its incorporation into existing facilities.

They have also demanded that access and connection criteria be made more flexible for new facilities that incorporate storage and that administrative processing be simplified when storage is incorporated within the perimeter of the plants.

Benjumea has pointed out that it is also necessary to create a remuneration framework for storage, which gives long-term price signals through competitive mechanisms, as is the case with electricity generation sources.

He has explained that these mechanisms must be complementary to other sources of income associated with the different services that storage can provide to the electrical system, such as balancing services, congestion resolution, flexibility or inertia markets.