Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system
The advances in floating offshore wind energy are opening deep sea areas, like the coastal waters of Iberian Peninsula (IP), for the installation of wind farms. The integration of this new energy source in a semi-closed power system with an already high share of variable renewable energies would be...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acffde |
| _version_ | 1797660602482556928 |
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| author | Noelia López-Franca Miguel Ángel Gaertner Claudia Gutiérrez Clemente Gallardo Enrique Sánchez María Ofelia Molina María Ortega |
| author_facet | Noelia López-Franca Miguel Ángel Gaertner Claudia Gutiérrez Clemente Gallardo Enrique Sánchez María Ofelia Molina María Ortega |
| author_sort | Noelia López-Franca |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The advances in floating offshore wind energy are opening deep sea areas, like the coastal waters of Iberian Peninsula (IP), for the installation of wind farms. The integration of this new energy source in a semi-closed power system with an already high share of variable renewable energies would be facilitated if the potential contribution of offshore wind energy shows reduced variability and limited seasonal variations, as the power demand in IP shows two maxima in winter and summer. The aims of this study are the analysis of temporal variability and spatial complementarity of the potential installation sites, and the identification of an optimal combination of installation areas that minimizes the temporal variability of the aggregated offshore contribution. In order to better capture the marked mesoscale features of winds around the IP, wind data from a very high resolution reanalysis (COSMO-REA6) are used. The analysis considers allowed areas for installation, delimited by the maritime spatial planning. Northern coast areas are characterized by high capacity factors (CFs) and high seasonality, while the lower CFs at the western and southern coasts are compensated by a limited seasonality. Pairwise correlation between the potential areas shows outstanding results, with several negative correlation values within a synoptic scale region, in contrast to other mid-latitude regions like the North Sea or the Eastern USA coast. An optimal aggregation of areas includes at least one area at each of the four main Iberian coasts. A strong reduction of hourly variability is obtained through the resulting combinations, and the seasonality of the aggregated CF is clearly below the values for other offshore areas. Therefore, offshore wind energy can indeed offer an added value for the Iberian power system beyond the high resource amount, reducing the need for storage or backup plants. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:33:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c2bcd53e7eb947ef9e75916f7ea31207 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T18:33:15Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-c2bcd53e7eb947ef9e75916f7ea312072023-10-13T08:57:44ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262023-01-01181111401610.1088/1748-9326/acffdeOffshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power systemNoelia López-Franca0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8254-9707Miguel Ángel Gaertner1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9909-8826Claudia Gutiérrez2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6747-6850Clemente Gallardo3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9867-1042Enrique Sánchez4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7720-4437María Ofelia Molina5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0838-6959María Ortega6https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1748-7364Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) , Toledo, SpainFacultad de Ciencias Ambientales y Bioquímica, UCLM , Toledo, SpainDepartamento de Física y Matemáticas, Universidad de Alcalá , Alcalá de Henares, SpainFacultad de Ciencias Ambientales y Bioquímica, UCLM , Toledo, SpainFacultad de Ciencias Ambientales y Bioquímica, UCLM , Toledo, SpainInstituto de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) , Toledo, SpainInstituto de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) , Toledo, SpainThe advances in floating offshore wind energy are opening deep sea areas, like the coastal waters of Iberian Peninsula (IP), for the installation of wind farms. The integration of this new energy source in a semi-closed power system with an already high share of variable renewable energies would be facilitated if the potential contribution of offshore wind energy shows reduced variability and limited seasonal variations, as the power demand in IP shows two maxima in winter and summer. The aims of this study are the analysis of temporal variability and spatial complementarity of the potential installation sites, and the identification of an optimal combination of installation areas that minimizes the temporal variability of the aggregated offshore contribution. In order to better capture the marked mesoscale features of winds around the IP, wind data from a very high resolution reanalysis (COSMO-REA6) are used. The analysis considers allowed areas for installation, delimited by the maritime spatial planning. Northern coast areas are characterized by high capacity factors (CFs) and high seasonality, while the lower CFs at the western and southern coasts are compensated by a limited seasonality. Pairwise correlation between the potential areas shows outstanding results, with several negative correlation values within a synoptic scale region, in contrast to other mid-latitude regions like the North Sea or the Eastern USA coast. An optimal aggregation of areas includes at least one area at each of the four main Iberian coasts. A strong reduction of hourly variability is obtained through the resulting combinations, and the seasonality of the aggregated CF is clearly below the values for other offshore areas. Therefore, offshore wind energy can indeed offer an added value for the Iberian power system beyond the high resource amount, reducing the need for storage or backup plants.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acffdeoffshore wind energy resourceIberian Peninsulaspatial complementarityCOSMO-REA6 |
| spellingShingle | Noelia López-Franca Miguel Ángel Gaertner Claudia Gutiérrez Clemente Gallardo Enrique Sánchez María Ofelia Molina María Ortega Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system Environmental Research Letters offshore wind energy resource Iberian Peninsula spatial complementarity COSMO-REA6 |
| title | Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system |
| title_full | Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system |
| title_fullStr | Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system |
| title_full_unstemmed | Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system |
| title_short | Offshore wind power around the Iberian Peninsula: variability, complementarity and added value for the power system |
| title_sort | offshore wind power around the iberian peninsula variability complementarity and added value for the power system |
| topic | offshore wind energy resource Iberian Peninsula spatial complementarity COSMO-REA6 |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/acffde |
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