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

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

Investigaciones Geográficas

Instituto de Geografía - UNAM

Lugar: Mexico; Año: 2018 vol. 97

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