Within the industry, hybrid power plants are on an upsurge. Co-locating storage and generation is good business sense, especially where renewables are concerned. Managing renewable loads has operational benefits if all the systems are in one place.
There is no particular definition of a “hybrid power plant” other than it combines two or more power systems in one site. Research groups that track these assets and compile deployment data, such as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, note that hybrids involve two or more generation sources, but the size and scope of hybrids can vary widely so there is not a rigid definition. A common type is the Solar+Wind+Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) which enables the power plant to supply electricity to consumers even if the sun is not shining and the wind is calm.
At the end of 2021, there were nearly 300 hybrid plants of over 1 MW operating across the United States, totaling nearly 36 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity and 3.2 GW/8.1 GWh of energy storage. Solar and storage plants are by far the most common type, making up 140 units, storage capacity (2.2 GW/7.0 GWh), storage:generator ratio (53%), and storage duration (3.2 hours). But there are nearly twenty other hybrid plant configurations as well, including several different fossil hybrid categories (each dominated by the fossil component) as well as wind+storage, wind+solar wind+solar+storage, geothermal+solar, and others.
The recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is predicted to support development of hybrid projects, and already has spawned some U.S. installations. The financial support it offers will incentivise utilities to create hybrid power plants in appropriate locations. As the cost of batteries falls dramatically, it makes sense to add these to wind or solar onshore arrays as they come on stream.
It looks like storage is going to be a significant factor in utility capacity management going forward. In sunny California, new renewable powerplants are almost always gong to be deployed with BESS and this makes cost-effective sense in other locations too.