Variable renewable energy resource module

This module provides the data to represent the quality-differentiated resource potential of wind and solar power at country level in energy-economy-models.

Dataset on solar resources - Photovoltaics (PV) and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)

Data

The toolbox contains:

Citation: When using any of the data on solar resources, please cite (Pietzcker et al., 2014).

Description: The full description of the data can be found in (Pietzcker et al., 2014), a preprint of which can be accessed at http://edoc.gfz-potsdam.de/pik/6551 

Solar resource by country

This dataset presents the total area that is available for installing PV or CSP plants, binned by the quality of the solar resource (here measured in full load hours that a plant would run), country, distance to nearest habitation, and if the area can be used by both PV and CSP (inclination < 4°, called “competition area” in the data) or only by PV (4° < inclination < 40°, called “on area only usable by PV” in the data). It also presents the respective installable capacity of PV/CSP plants and the electricity that could be generated, binned by the same categories.

Competition mapping

The competition mapping presents the quality of the PV/CSP resource that the best x% of the area in a given country has, measured in full load hours that a plant would run. It thereby allows implementing a competition equation in energy-economy-models that ensures that a given piece of land can only either be used for PV or CSP. More detail on how such a constraint might be formulated, check the supplementary information of Pietzcker et al., 2014.

Dataset on wind resources (on- and offshore)

Data

The toolbox consists of a dataset on quality-binned wind resources (on- and offshore) per country, which can be downloaded free of charge at https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/global-cfdda-based-onshore-and-offshore...

Citaton: When using any of the data on wind resources, please cite (Eurek et al., n.d.)

Description:

  • The full description of the data can be found in (Eurek et al., n.d.), a preprint of which can be accessed here
  • The data presents the installable capacity as well as the energy that could be generated, binned by quality of the resource, country, distance to next grid point, as well as distance to shore for offshore wind

References

  • Eurek, K., Sullivan, P., Gleason, M., Hettinger, D., Heimiller, D., Lopez, A., n.d. An improved global wind resource estimate for integrated assessment models. Energy Economics. doi:10.1016/j.eneco.2016.11.015
  • Pietzcker, R.C., Stetter, D., Manger, S., Luderer, G., 2014. Using the sun to decarbonize the power sector: The economic potential of photovoltaics and concentrating solar power. Applied Energy 135, 704–720. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2014.08.011