IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v158y2020icp114-129.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Estimation of solar and wind energy resources over Lesotho and their complementarity by means of WRF yearly simulation at high resolution

Author

Listed:
  • D’Isidoro, Massimo
  • Briganti, Gino
  • Vitali, Lina
  • Righini, Gaia
  • Adani, Mario
  • Guarnieri, Guido
  • Moretti, Lorenzo
  • Raliselo, Muso
  • Mahahabisa, Mabafokeng
  • Ciancarella, Luisella
  • Zanini, Gabriele
  • Fino, Ernesto

Abstract

An application of the Weather Research and Forecasting model aiming to estimate wind and photovoltaic energy resources over Lesotho is presented. To this scope, the whole year 2015 was simulated in a two-way nesting mode reaching 1 km horizontal resolution. Different model parameterizations were tested and compared to available observations, then the best performing simulation was used to elaborate wind and photovoltaic potential maps over Lesotho. Concerning the photovoltaic potential, Lesotho presents a good potential countrywide, having values ranging from around 1600 kWh/kWp to 1750 kWh/kWp, with maxima in the highlands. The results also show that there are many promising areas for wind power exploitation. Zones with higher wind potential are mainly found all along the eastern border with South Africa, from north to south and in general in the highlands. The wind potential exhibits much more variability respect to the photovoltaic one, with estimated energy production ranging from 1000 kWh/kW up to 4000 kWh/kW. Finally, an evaluation of complementarity of wind and solar electricity generation was done at different time scales, showing that some areas with negative correlation coefficient exist, where it is possible to minimise intermittent production and allowing an optimal integration in the electricity grid.

Suggested Citation

  • D’Isidoro, Massimo & Briganti, Gino & Vitali, Lina & Righini, Gaia & Adani, Mario & Guarnieri, Guido & Moretti, Lorenzo & Raliselo, Muso & Mahahabisa, Mabafokeng & Ciancarella, Luisella & Zanini, Gabr, 2020. "Estimation of solar and wind energy resources over Lesotho and their complementarity by means of WRF yearly simulation at high resolution," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 158(C), pages 114-129.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:158:y:2020:i:c:p:114-129
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.106
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120308041
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2020.05.106?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dasari, Hari Prasad & Desamsetti, Srinivas & Langodan, Sabique & Attada, Raju & Kunchala, Ravi Kumar & Viswanadhapalli, Yesubabu & Knio, Omar & Hoteit, Ibrahim, 2019. "High-resolution assessment of solar energy resources over the Arabian Peninsula," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 354-371.
    2. de Jong, Pieter & Dargaville, Roger & Silver, Jeremy & Utembe, Steven & Kiperstok, Asher & Torres, Ednildo Andrade, 2017. "Forecasting high proportions of wind energy supplying the Brazilian Northeast electricity grid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 538-555.
    3. Taele, B.M. & Gopinathan, K.K. & Mokhuts’oane, L, 2007. "The potential of renewable energy technologies for rural development in Lesotho," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 609-622.
    4. Cornejo, Lorena & Martín-Pomares, Luis & Alarcon, Diego & Blanco, Julián & Polo, Jesús, 2017. "A through analysis of solar irradiation measurements in the region of Arica Parinacota, Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 197-208.
    5. De Felice, Matteo & Soares, Marta Bruno & Alessandri, Andrea & Troccoli, Alberto, 2019. "Scoping the potential usefulness of seasonal climate forecasts for solar power management," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 215-223.
    6. Taele, B.M. & Mokhutšoane, L. & Hapazari, I., 2012. "An overview of small hydropower development in Lesotho: Challenges and prospects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 448-452.
    7. Prósper, Miguel A. & Otero-Casal, Carlos & Fernández, Felipe Canoura & Miguez-Macho, Gonzalo, 2019. "Wind power forecasting for a real onshore wind farm on complex terrain using WRF high resolution simulations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 674-686.
    8. Gaetani, Marco & Huld, Thomas & Vignati, Elisabetta & Monforti-Ferrario, Fabio & Dosio, Alessandro & Raes, Frank, 2014. "The near future availability of photovoltaic energy in Europe and Africa in climate-aerosol modeling experiments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 706-716.
    9. Hoicka, Christina E. & Rowlands, Ian H., 2011. "Solar and wind resource complementarity: Advancing options for renewable electricity integration in Ontario, Canada," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 97-107.
    10. Skoplaki, E. & Palyvos, J.A., 2009. "Operating temperature of photovoltaic modules: A survey of pertinent correlations," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 23-29.
    11. Mpholo, Moeketsi & Nchaba, Teboho & Monese, Molebatsi, 2015. "Yield and performance analysis of the first grid-connected solar farm at Moshoeshoe I International Airport, Lesotho," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 845-852.
    12. Senatla, Mamahloko & Nchake, Mamello & Taele, Benedict M. & Hapazari, Innocent, 2018. "Electricity capacity expansion plan for Lesotho – implications on energy policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 622-634.
    13. Mathaba, Tebello & Mpholo, Moeketsi & Letuma, Mosuoe, 2012. "Velocity and power density analysis of the wind at Letšeng-la-terae in Lesotho," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 210-217.
    14. Mohammadpour Penchah, Mohammadreza & Malakooti, Hossein & Satkin, Mohammad, 2017. "Evaluation of planetary boundary layer simulations for wind resource study in east of Iran," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 1-10.
    15. Argüeso, D. & Businger, S., 2018. "Wind power characteristics of Oahu, Hawaii," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(PA), pages 324-336.
    16. Monforti, F. & Huld, T. & Bódis, K. & Vitali, L. & D'Isidoro, M. & Lacal-Arántegui, R., 2014. "Assessing complementarity of wind and solar resources for energy production in Italy. A Monte Carlo approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 576-586.
    17. Thomas Huld & Ana M. Gracia Amillo, 2015. "Estimating PV Module Performance over Large Geographical Regions: The Role of Irradiance, Air Temperature, Wind Speed and Solar Spectrum," Energies, MDPI, vol. 8(6), pages 1-23, June.
    18. Gopinathan, K.K. & Maliehe, N.B. & Mpholo, M.I., 2007. "A study on the intercepted insolation as a function of slope and azimuth of the surface," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 213-220.
    19. Widén, Joakim & Carpman, Nicole & Castellucci, Valeria & Lingfors, David & Olauson, Jon & Remouit, Flore & Bergkvist, Mikael & Grabbe, Mårten & Waters, Rafael, 2015. "Variability assessment and forecasting of renewables: A review for solar, wind, wave and tidal resources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 356-375.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wang, Zhenni & Wen, Xin & Tan, Qiaofeng & Fang, Guohua & Lei, Xiaohui & Wang, Hao & Yan, Jinyue, 2021. "Potential assessment of large-scale hydro-photovoltaic-wind hybrid systems on a global scale," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    2. Francesco Pasanisi & Gaia Righini & Massimo D’Isidoro & Lina Vitali & Gino Briganti & Sergio Grauso & Lorenzo Moretti & Carlo Tebano & Gabriele Zanini & Mabafokeng Mahahabisa & Mosuoe Letuma & Muso Ra, 2021. "A Cooperation Project in Lesotho: Renewable Energy Potential Maps Embedded in a WebGIS Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-26, September.
    3. Diana Cantor & Andrés Ochoa & Oscar Mesa, 2022. "Total Variation-Based Metrics for Assessing Complementarity in Energy Resources Time Series," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-15, July.
    4. Pedruzzi, Rizzieri & Silva, Allan Rodrigues & Soares dos Santos, Thalyta & Araujo, Allan Cavalcante & Cotta Weyll, Arthur Lúcide & Lago Kitagawa, Yasmin Kaore & Nunes da Silva Ramos, Diogo & Milani de, 2023. "Review of mapping analysis and complementarity between solar and wind energy sources," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    5. Constantino Dário Justo & José Eduardo Tafula & Pedro Moura, 2022. "Planning Sustainable Energy Systems in the Southern African Development Community: A Review of Power Systems Planning Approaches," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-28, October.
    6. Fan, Jing-Li & Huang, Xi & Shi, Jie & Li, Kai & Cai, Jingwen & Zhang, Xian, 2023. "Complementary potential of wind-solar-hydro power in Chinese provinces: Based on a high temporal resolution multi-objective optimization model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    7. Perini de Souza, Noele Bissoli & Sperandio Nascimento, Erick Giovani & Bandeira Santos, Alex Alisson & Moreira, Davidson Martins, 2022. "Wind mapping using the mesoscale WRF model in a tropical region of Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    8. Wang, Gang & Bai, Long & Chao, Yuechao & Chen, Zeshao, 2023. "How do solar photovoltaic and wind power promote the joint poverty alleviation and clean energy development: An evolutionary game theoretic study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    9. Jani, Hardik K. & Kachhwaha, Surendra Singh & Nagababu, Garlapati & Das, Alok, 2022. "Temporal and spatial simultaneity assessment of wind-solar energy resources in India by statistical analysis and machine learning clustering approach," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Francesco Pasanisi & Gaia Righini & Massimo D’Isidoro & Lina Vitali & Gino Briganti & Sergio Grauso & Lorenzo Moretti & Carlo Tebano & Gabriele Zanini & Mabafokeng Mahahabisa & Mosuoe Letuma & Muso Ra, 2021. "A Cooperation Project in Lesotho: Renewable Energy Potential Maps Embedded in a WebGIS Tool," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-26, September.
    2. Zhang, Hengxu & Cao, Yongji & Zhang, Yi & Terzija, Vladimir, 2018. "Quantitative synergy assessment of regional wind-solar energy resources based on MERRA reanalysis data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 172-182.
    3. Pérez Odeh, Rodrigo & Watts, David & Flores, Yarela, 2018. "Planning in a changing environment: Applications of portfolio optimisation to deal with risk in the electricity sector," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 82(P3), pages 3808-3823.
    4. Henao, Felipe & Viteri, Juan P. & Rodríguez, Yeny & Gómez, Juan & Dyner, Isaac, 2020. "Annual and interannual complementarities of renewable energy sources in Colombia," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    5. Perini de Souza, Noele Bissoli & Sperandio Nascimento, Erick Giovani & Bandeira Santos, Alex Alisson & Moreira, Davidson Martins, 2022. "Wind mapping using the mesoscale WRF model in a tropical region of Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    6. Engeland, Kolbjørn & Borga, Marco & Creutin, Jean-Dominique & François, Baptiste & Ramos, Maria-Helena & Vidal, Jean-Philippe, 2017. "Space-time variability of climate variables and intermittent renewable electricity production – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 600-617.
    7. Bett, Philip E. & Thornton, Hazel E., 2016. "The climatological relationships between wind and solar energy supply in Britain," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(P1), pages 96-110.
    8. Monforti, F. & Gaetani, M. & Vignati, E., 2016. "How synchronous is wind energy production among European countries?," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1622-1638.
    9. Mpholo, Moeketsi & Nchaba, Teboho & Monese, Molebatsi, 2015. "Yield and performance analysis of the first grid-connected solar farm at Moshoeshoe I International Airport, Lesotho," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 845-852.
    10. Viviescas, Cindy & Lima, Lucas & Diuana, Fabio A. & Vasquez, Eveline & Ludovique, Camila & Silva, Gabriela N. & Huback, Vanessa & Magalar, Leticia & Szklo, Alexandre & Lucena, André F.P. & Schaeffer, , 2019. "Contribution of Variable Renewable Energy to increase energy security in Latin America: Complementarity and climate change impacts on wind and solar resources," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    11. Xiaomei Ma & Yongqian Liu & Jie Yan & Han Wang, 2023. "A WGAN-GP-Based Scenarios Generation Method for Wind and Solar Power Complementary Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-20, March.
    12. Ingeborg Graabak & Magnus Korpås, 2016. "Variability Characteristics of European Wind and Solar Power Resources—A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(6), pages 1-31, June.
    13. Sun, Wei & Harrison, Gareth P., 2019. "Wind-solar complementarity and effective use of distribution network capacity," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C), pages 89-101.
    14. Dujardin, Jérôme & Kahl, Annelen & Kruyt, Bert & Bartlett, Stuart & Lehning, Michael, 2017. "Interplay between photovoltaic, wind energy and storage hydropower in a fully renewable Switzerland," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 513-525.
    15. Neto, Pedro Bezerra Leite & Saavedra, Osvaldo R. & Oliveira, Denisson Q., 2020. "The effect of complementarity between solar, wind and tidal energy in isolated hybrid microgrids," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(P1), pages 339-355.
    16. González-Alonso de Linaje, N. & Mattar, C. & Borvarán, D., 2019. "Quantifying the wind energy potential differences using different WRF initial conditions on Mediterranean coast of Chile," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    17. Kougias, Ioannis & Szabó, Sándor & Monforti-Ferrario, Fabio & Huld, Thomas & Bódis, Katalin, 2016. "A methodology for optimization of the complementarity between small-hydropower plants and solar PV systems," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(P2), pages 1023-1030.
    18. Karl Ezra S. Pilario & Jessa A. Ibañez & Xaviery N. Penisa & Johndel B. Obra & Carl Michael F. Odulio & Joey D. Ocon, 2022. "Spatio-Temporal Solar–Wind Complementarity Assessment in the Province of Kalinga-Apayao, Philippines Using Canonical Correlation Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-12, March.
    19. Jakub Jurasz & Jerzy Mikulik, 2017. "A strategy for the photovoltaic-powered pumped storage hydroelectricity," Energy & Environment, , vol. 28(5-6), pages 544-563, September.
    20. Ren, Guorui & Wan, Jie & Liu, Jinfu & Yu, Daren, 2019. "Spatial and temporal assessments of complementarity for renewable energy resources in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 262-275.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:158:y:2020:i:c:p:114-129. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.