How much seasonal energy storage?

If most of the world's energy came from wind & solar, how much energy storage would we need to smooth out the seasonal variations?

Analysis needed

Get data on solar

Case study needed: Rooftop solar panels, how much power output for each hour - data collected over the course of a year or more.

Get data on wind

Case study needed: Power combined from a large number of wind turbines dispersed geographically but still close enough to share the same power grid. Hourly data collected over the course of a year or more.

Get data on energy demand

Hourly data collected over the course of a year or more:

• Base demand, excluding heating
• Heating demand
  • Ideally, the case study's geographical location should be similar to the wind & solar case studies

Run it through a simplified computer model

To implement this, I started writing some code: Code:how-much-energy-storage.c

Scenario

• An intermittent mix of wind & solar electricity
• Short-term energy storage: Batteries
• Longer-term energy storage: Hydrogen gas

Logic for each point in time

Use of the solar+wind electricity:

• 1st priority: Meet base demand (not including heating)
  • If not enough, take from batteries
  • If not enough, gotta use fossil fuels :( or nuclear :)
• 2nd priority: Charge batteries
• 3rd priority: Use surplus electricity for heating
• 4th priority: Produce hydrogen gas

If needed, burn hydrogen to provide the rest of the heating.

• If not enough, gotta use fossil fuels :( or nuclear :)

Input parameters to tweak

• Overall supply/demand ratio
  • Default value: 2
  • Definition: {total solar+wind energy produced over time} / {total energy consumed over time}
• Solar/wind ratio
  • Default value: 1
  • Definition: {total solar energy produced over time} / {total wind energy produced over time}
• Battery capacity 💬 discussion Should this be specified in kWh, or in {hours of {total energy consumed over time} }?

Results to look at

• What percent of energy demand gets covered by renewables
• Maximum hydrogen gas stored at any given time

See also

• How much short-term energy storage for solar?
• What could provide enough seasonal energy storage?
• Decarbonize energy