Techno-Economic Optimization of Hybrid Offshore Power Parks in the UK Using PyPSA

Sammanfattning

To achieve Europe’s climate and renewable energy targets during the sustainable energy transition, large-scale expansion of renewable electricity production is required. Offshore energy plays a vital role in this transition. However, integrating variable renewable sources introduces technical and operational challenges, including variability, transmission bottlenecks, and curtailment of renewable output. Hybrid offshore renewable power parks are identified as a strategy to overcome most of these challenges. In these power parks, infrastructure and transmission are shared across all connected generation technologies. In this study, the techno-economic performance of hybrid power parks is evaluated across multiple scenarios. The power park integrates power generation technologies, including offshore wind, floating solar photovoltaic (PV), wave energy, and battery energy storage (BESS). The analysis uses the Python for Power System Analysis (PyPSA) Europe (Eur) framework, and the power park is connected to the Great Britain (GB) electricity system. Scenarios are evaluated using total optimization cost, complementary generation profiles, curtailment, transmission utilization, and investment decisions. Study results indicate that multi-source offshore power parks with optimized installed wind and solar capacities significantly reduce curtailment and improve the use of transmission infrastructure. The larger the power park capacity, the greater these benefits. Despite these benefits, the cost-optimal system did not add a new node to the existing transmission-constrained network under unconstrained conditions. The main reason was the low nodal electricity price at the chosen power park location and transmission bottlenecks. As the existing GB electricity system already has a considerable share of renewables, wave energy, and BESS were not selected under the assumed cost conditions. Similarly, imposing a CO2 penalty had no effect on investment decisions because of the high share of low-carbon generation sources in the existing system. The study concludes that hybrid offshore energy power parks consistently offer a range of technical benefits. However, these systems will not bring economic benefits unless locational marginal prices at nodes become competitive. Even with abundant renewable resources, transmission constraints and network topology will impact nodal prices. If the nodal price remains low, investing in these areas is not economically viable. These findings emphasize the importance of coordinating energy supply and transmission infrastructure in future offshore renewable energy planning to achieve both techno-economic benefits. When economic benefits alone do not justify deploying hybrid power parks, government policy instruments can support investment in them.