European Journal of Business Science and Technology 2022, 8(1):19-41 | DOI: 10.11118/ejobsat.2022.005

The Cost of Renewable Electricity and Energy Storage in Germany

Nico Peter Benjamin Wehrle1
1 Mendel University in Brno, Czech Republic

Renewable power generation, especially wind power and solar power, is experiencing a strong expansion worldwide and especially in Germany. With high shares of these methods of power generation, energy storage is needed to enable a demand-oriented power supply even with weather-related fluctuations in generation. Against the background of a power supply based entirely on wind and solar power, the question arises as to what total costs arise with the inclusion of storage systems, which is the subject of this article. The calculation model uses hourly resolved real data of German electricity generation from the years 2012 to 2018 to determine the required storage capacities. The electricity generation costs used range between 0.02 and 0.10 EUR/kW/h. The costs for the considered energy storages are calculated based on the Levelised Cost of Storage (LCOS) metric. It is concluded that in an electricity supply system based on wind and solar power, it is not the electricity generation that causes the greatest costs, but the storage. With electricity generation costs of 0.06 EUR/kW/h, the total system costs are in a range of 0.19 to 0.28 EUR/kW/h. This means that, in terms of costs, energy storage is more significant than electricity generation.

Keywords: energy storage, renewable energy sources, Germany, levelised cost of storage
JEL classification: C32, C53, O13, Q40

Received: December 4, 2021; Revised: March 14, 2022; Accepted: May 5, 2022; Published: July 31, 2022  Show citation

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Wehrle, N.P.B. (2022). The Cost of Renewable Electricity and Energy Storage in Germany. European Journal of Business Science and Technology, 8(1), 19-41. doi: 10.11118/ejobsat.2022.005
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