High penetration of very large scale PV Systems into the European electric network

The paper investigates the necessary European cross-border connections upgrade to facilitate the integration of future amounts of solar power. Simulations have been carried out for studying the effect of increased photovoltaic power generation in the European high voltage transmission network. A simplified model of the EU power system has been used assuming as a base case the 2020 projected power generation mix with 87 GW of PV installed capacity. Two scenarios for additional PV installed capacity have been implemented on the 2020 base case: the first one considers a 25 GW PV installation in North Africa imported in the EU grid and the second one considers 50 GW of PV installed capacity distributed among the EU countries. The second scenario ends up to be less critical than the first one.