Curtailment

Solar curtailment increased by 97% in Germany last year, driven by rapid growth in PV deployment and unusually high solar radiation in the summer, according to the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur).

In a major policy shift toward electricity market liberalization, China has introduced contract-for-difference (CfD) auctions for renewable plants and removed the energy storage mandate, which has driven up to 75% of national demand to date. S&P Global expects the move to reverberate through the global battery storage supply chain, further driving down prices already at historic lows.

Cyprus curtailed 29% of its renewable energy in 2024, a record high that signals risks to the island’s energy transition.

As the penetration of variable renewable energy increases, curtailment of solar PV generation will only increase. Since curtailment will almost always be cheaper than investing in new transmission capacity or new grid-scale storage, curtailed energy should be rewarded, so that PV investment decisions can include curtailment as one of the flexibility options for grid operators.

Researchers in China have suggested to combine PV plants with direct air capture (DAC) technologies in an effort to reduce solar curtailment and increase DAC competitiveness. They found that the proposed combination could become viable by 2030, especially if carbon prices will increase.

Developed by researchers in South Africa, the proposed technique is based on the water cycle algorithm (WCA), a population-based metaheuristic optimization algorithm that is inspired by the water cycle process in nature and how streams and rivers flow into the sea.

The Hellenic Association of Photovoltaic Energy Producers (Spef) is pushing the Greek government to stop issuing new grid connection licenses for renewable energy systems to address the nation’s escalating power curtailment issue.

A European research team has proposed a new methodology for optimal design of hybrid wind-solar power plants. Their approach is based on 1-minute resolution data, which the scientists said provide much more accurate information about potential curtailment and clipping losses compared to 1-hour resolution data.

The rapid growth of renewable energy in Brazil has not been matched by transmission and distribution infrastructure. Connection restrictions for both “distributed-” and centralized-generation sites are leading companies to adopt new strategies to maintain expansion, reports pv magazine Brasil’s Livia Neves.

China’s National Energy Administration (NEA) says that utilization rates of solar and wind projects in specific provinces must not fall below 90%.