To achieve a sustainable energy system, a further increase in electricity generation from renewable energy sources (RES) is imperative. However, the development and implementation of RES entail various challenges, e.g., dealing with grid stability issues due to RES’ intermittency. Correspondingly, increasingly volatile and even negative electricity prices question the economic viability of RES-plants. To address these challenges, this paper analyzes how the integration of an RES-plant and a computationally intensive, energy-consuming data center (DC) can promote investments in RES-plants. An optimization model is developed that calculates the net present value (NPV) of an integrated energy system (IES) comprising an RES-plant and a DC, where the DC may directly consume electricity from the RES-plant. To gain applicable knowledge, this paper evaluates the developed model by means of two use-cases with real-world data, namely AWS computing instances for training Machine Learning algorithms and Bitcoin mining as relevant DC applications. The results illustrate that for both cases the NPV of the IES compared to a stand-alone RES-plant increases, which may lead to a promotion of RES-plants. The evaluation also finds that the IES may be able to provide significant energy flexibility that can be used to stabilize the electricity grid. Finally, the IES may also help to reduce the carbon-footprint of new energy-intensive DC applications by directly consuming electricity from RES-plants.

为了实现可持续的能源系统，必须进一步增加可再生能源（RES）的发电量。但是，RES的开发和实施带来了各种挑战，例如，由于RES的间歇性而导致的电网稳定性问题。相应地，日益波动的电力价格甚至是负电价，都对可再生能源工厂的经济可行性提出了质疑。为了应对这些挑战，本文分析了RES工厂和计算密集型耗能数据中心（DC）的集成如何促进RES工厂的投资。开发了一种优化模型，该模型可计算包括RES工厂和DC的集成能源系统（IES）的净现值（NPV），其中DC可以直接从RES工厂中消耗电力。为了获得适用的知识，本文通过具有真实数据的两个用例评估了开发的模型，即用于训练机器学习算法的AWS计算实例和作为相关DC应用程序的比特币挖掘。结果表明，与独立的RES植物相比，两种情况下IES的NPV均增加，这可能导致RES植物的推广。该评估还发现，IES可能能够提供可用于稳定电网的显着能源灵活性。最后，IES还可以通过直接消耗RES工厂的电力来帮助减少新能源密集型DC应用的碳足迹。结果表明，与独立的RES植物相比，两种情况下IES的NPV均增加，这可能导致RES植物的推广。评估还发现，IES可能能够提供可用于稳定电网的显着能源灵活性。最后，IES还可以通过直接消耗RES工厂的电力来帮助减少新能源密集型DC应用的碳足迹。结果表明，与独立的RES植物相比，两种情况下IES的NPV均增加，这可能导致RES植物的推广。评估还发现，IES可能能够提供可用于稳定电网的显着能源灵活性。最后，IES还可以通过直接消耗RES工厂的电力来帮助减少新能源密集型DC应用的碳足迹。