Thread by @alichehrehsaz

Solar + battery power plants are on the rise. We need to skate where the puck is going to effectively integrate #Bitcoin with #solar. 1/n 🧵
Here are some excerpts from a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: emp.lbl.gov/news/2021-was-…

At the end of 2021, there were nearly 300 hybrid plants (>1 MW) operating across the United States, totaling nearly 36 GW of generating capacity and 3.2 GW/8.1 GWh of energy storage.

PV+storage dominates in terms of plant number (140), storage capacity (2.2 GW/7.0 GWh), storage:generator capacity ratio (53%), and storage duration (3.2 hours).

This relatively high storage ratio and duration in particular suggest that storage is providing resource adequacy (i.e., capacity firming) and energy arbitrage (i.e., shifting power sales from lower- to higher-priced periods) capabilities to PV+storage plants.

Last year was a breakout year for PV+storage hybrids in particular: 67 of the 74 hybrids added in 2021 were PV+storage! @thetrocro gradually, then suddenly?

At the close of 2021, there were more than 670 GW of solar plants in the nation’s queues; 285 GW (~42%) of this capacity was proposed as a hybrid, most typically pairing PV with battery storage (PV+storage represented nearly 90% of all hybrid capacity in the queues).

Though PV+storage PPA prices have fallen over time, “levelized storage adders” have recently increased somewhat to ~$5500/MW-month, ~$45/MWh-stored (assuming one full cycle per day), or ~$15/MWh-PV 👉 @nimacheeps we need optimization on sizing and utilization to increase value