TY - JOUR A1 - Estermann, Thomas A1 - Newborough, Marcus N. A1 - Sterner, Michael T1 - Power-to-gas systems for absorbing excess solar power in electricity distribution networks JF - International Journal of Hydrogen Energy N2 - The feasibility of implementing power-to-gas systems, to absorb surplus solar power from electricity distribution networks and carbon dioxide from biomass anaerobic digestion (AD) plant, in order to produce synthetic methane was investigated for a region of Southern Germany that has a high solar power penetration. The analysis was based on time series electricity data for 2012 from which future load profiles were computed in accordance with the expected installed capacities of solar power across the period 2015–2025. The electrolyser capacity required to absorb 20% of excess solar energy occurring within the region's low voltage network in 2025 was estimated to be 370 MWe. First order considerations of the region's gas grid, electricity network and existing AD sites suggest that such a deployment could be achieved by installing sub-MW (and some multi-MW) power-to-gas plant at several hundred AD sites. KW - Energy storage KW - Power-to-gas KW - Solar power KW - Synthetic methane Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2016.05.278 VL - 41 IS - 32 SP - 13950 EP - 13959 PB - Elsevier ER -