Brasilia Wind and Solar Energy Storage Power Station

Are wind and solar energy resources a complementary resource in Brazil?

In the light of the current moment of transformation of the electricity sector in Brazil and elsewhere, with a growing uptake of utility-scale wind and solar power plants, this work shows that the temporal complementary of wind and solar resources in the Brazilian Northeast is consistent and it can have a major role in the optimal portfolio design.

What is Brazil's energy mix?

With an installed generation capacity of over 170 GW, the Brazilian energy mix is very diverse in resources, with 62% of its energy being provided by hydroelectricity, 26% by thermoelectric plants (16% fossil fuel, 9% biomass, 1% nuclear), and around 12% by non-dispatchable RE sources (9% wind and 3% solar) .

Do solar and wind resource availability and potential output generation complementarity matter?

In this context, the present study aims to assess the temporal complementarity between the solar and wind resource availability and potential output generation, and how this complementarity, together with short-term electrochemical energy storage, can be used to optimize a more widespread uptake of hybrid utility-scale wind + solar power plants.

Do wind and PV projects share the same access point?

Both wind and PV large-scale power plant projects are being installed in close proximity and, therefore, many projects share the same access point to the Brazilian Interconnected Transmission System (Sistema Interligado Nacional - SIN in Portuguese), and the high-voltage transmission lines.