Assessment of the global potential for renewable energy storage systems on small islands

Philipp Blechinger, Robert Seguin, Catherina Cader, Paul Bertheau, Christian Breyer

More than 2,000 small islands (1,000 to 100,000 inhabitants) globally exist. These islands cover a huge potential for the implementation of renewable energies and storage systems. Their power generation is mainly based on expensive diesel power plants. In combination with abundant renewable resources, hybrid renewable energy systems become competitive compared to the existing fossil based power generation. This work reveals the enormous market potential for high share renewable energy solutions including battery storage systems. On a global scale more than 5 GWh of energy storage can be economically installed on these small islands.

Download