Author(s)

Gilberto Pianezzola¹, Arno Krenzinger¹, Fausto A. Canales²

¹Escola de Engenharia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.
²Instituto de Pesquisas Hidráulicas (IPH), Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil.

If two or more renewable energy sources are available in the same region, their complementary can be advantageous in a hybrid power system. Three indices are defined in this work for assessing the complementarity of solar and wind resources for energy production. Based on existing data of solar radiation and wind speed, these complementarity indices were calculated and represented in the form of maps for the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in southern Brazil. The results found suggest that there are some areas of the state where the use of hybrid wind-solar power systems could be more effective than single photovoltaic or wind systems.

Renewable Energy, Complementarity, Energetic Complementarity in Time, Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Hybrid Power Systems

Pianezzola, G. , Krenzinger, A. and Canales, F. (2017) Complementarity Maps of Wind and Solar Energy Resources for Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Energy and Power Engineering, 9, 489-504. doi: 10.4236/epe.2017.99034.