Assessing wind, solar, and wave energy sources in the southwest of Buenos Aires province (Argentina).

GENCHI, S.A.; VITALE, A. F; PICCOLO M. C.; PERILLO, G. M. E.

Investigaciones Geográficas

UNAM

Año: 2018 vol. 97

Identifying the potential of renewable energy sources is of interest for energy planning. The main goal of this study is to assess wind, solar and wave energy resources in the southwest of Buenos Aires Province (Argentina) interms of their potential for electricity production, their relationship with electrical load demand, as well as the integration between them. Data from four monitoring stations were used. In general, peak power levels were observed in the summer, coinciding with the highest energy demand, reaching mean values up to 1.06 kW m-2 (wind at 30 m height), 0.56 kW m-2 (solar) and 4.60 kW m-1 (wave). The relationship between renewable sources at various time scales was explored through the Pearson correlation coefficient. wind and solar sources were highly and positively correlated, meaning that these cannot complement each other for combined exploitation. However, most of the remaining source pairs, such as wind (continental/onshore) versus wavepower, solar versus wave power, wind (offshore) versus wind (continental/onshore) power, and wind (offshore) versus solar power, showed promising results for complementarity.