IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms10014.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The impact of climate change on photovoltaic power generation in Europe

Author

Listed:
  • Sonia Jerez

    (University of Murcia)

  • Isabelle Tobin

    (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ)

  • Robert Vautard

    (Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement (LSCE), IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ)

  • Juan Pedro Montávez

    (University of Murcia)

  • Jose María López-Romero

    (University of Murcia)

  • Françoise Thais

    (Institut de Technico-Economie des Systèmes Energétiques (I-Tésé), CEA/DEN/DANS)

  • Blanka Bartok

    (Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science
    Babes-Bolyai University)

  • Ole Bøssing Christensen

    (Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI))

  • Augustin Colette

    (Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques (INERIS))

  • Michel Déqué

    (Météo-France/CNRM, CNRS/GAME)

  • Grigory Nikulin

    (Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI))

  • Sven Kotlarski

    (Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science)

  • Erik van Meijgaard

    (Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI))

  • Claas Teichmann

    (Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS))

  • Martin Wild

    (Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science)

Abstract

Ambitious climate change mitigation plans call for a significant increase in the use of renewables, which could, however, make the supply system more vulnerable to climate variability and changes. Here we evaluate climate change impacts on solar photovoltaic (PV) power in Europe using the recent EURO-CORDEX ensemble of high-resolution climate projections together with a PV power production model and assuming a well-developed European PV power fleet. Results indicate that the alteration of solar PV supply by the end of this century compared with the estimations made under current climate conditions should be in the range (−14%;+2%), with the largest decreases in Northern countries. Temporal stability of power generation does not appear as strongly affected in future climate scenarios either, even showing a slight positive trend in Southern countries. Therefore, despite small decreases in production expected in some parts of Europe, climate change is unlikely to threaten the European PV sector.

Suggested Citation

  • Sonia Jerez & Isabelle Tobin & Robert Vautard & Juan Pedro Montávez & Jose María López-Romero & Françoise Thais & Blanka Bartok & Ole Bøssing Christensen & Augustin Colette & Michel Déqué & Grigory Ni, 2015. "The impact of climate change on photovoltaic power generation in Europe," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10014
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10014
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms10014?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms10014. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    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.