Integration of Renewable Energies: A Full-Scale Laboratory in Denmark

Global solar and wind capacity more than doubled between 2018 and 2023⁽¹⁾. As renewable energies have an essential role to play in decarbonizing the energy sector and limiting global warming, their capacity is expected to triple by 2030 to meet the COP28 target.

Power grids can cope with variations in demand, but renewables introduce a new variability, this time associated with weather conditions. This means that efforts must be made to increase the flexibility of the existing grids if electricity from renewable sources is to be reliably and affordably integrated.

As a global multi-energy company, TotalEnergies is aiming to generate 100 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity by 2030, mainly from renewable sources. Alongside our investments in solar, wind and hydroelectric power generation as well as energy storage systems, we are leading a number of R&D programs in the electricity sector to develop the technologies and services for the electric value chain of tomorrow.

In particular, we are working on hybrid production systems and storage, which are essential allies in compensating for the intermittent nature of renewable energies. In partnership with DTU, we have consequently designed a pilot Hybrid Power Plant (HPP), a cutting-edge experimental facility for conducting future research into low-carbon electricity systems, housed on the Risø campus.

A hybrid power plant combines several ways of producing electricity. These different systems can be combined to improve electricity production and thereby bring stability to the network without any risk of overloading or, on the contrary, under-supplying the grid.

The hybrid power plant that we have developed with DTU is a small-scale pilot unit that will provide researchers with the resources that they need to test different systems for optimizing the integration of wind and solar power into the grid, in combination with battery-based storage systems. The plant includes:

• two 225 kilowatt-hour (kWh) wind turbines,
• 1,600 m² of solar panels facing south, east and west to take advantage of the different phases of sunshine during the day, and
• 1.25 megawatts (MW) of battery-based storage, to store the surplus electricity generated by the renewable energy facilities for subsequent injection into the grid.

The system is reinforced with network emulation systems that enable researchers and engineers to simulate any fault in the power grid. As such, they can compare their mathematical models with the controlled reality of this miniature hybrid power plant and adjust the control systems to better respond to these disturbances.

In addition to its scientific applications, the platform will produce almost one gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity per year, i.e. the annual consumption of 200 households, which will be fed into the Danish power grid.