Work

D9.5: Solar energy atlas with global maps of solar energy potential and variability therein

Year: 2025

Type: report

Abstract: About this document The report presents maps of mean global solar energy and of the temporal variability of global solar energy derived from the SR-ESM output and provided. Work package in charge WP9 Executive summary We developed a solar energy atlas based on the 30-year (2020 - 2049) km-scale global climate simulations produced with IFS and ICON. For both simulations, we show global maps of the mean solar photovoltaics (PV) potentials as well as the inter-annual variability and decadal trends thereof. IFS and ICON produce similar global patterns in annual mean PV potential, although PV potentials based on the ICON data are generally higher. Both simulations also show good agreement on the standard deviation of the annual-mean PV potential, with arid regions showing the strongest inter-annual variability, but mostly produce very different decadal trends. Furthermore, we identify ≥3-day warm & dry spells to study the impact of extreme weather situations on PV energy production. We find that, except in arid climates, these warm & dryevent mostly result in higher PV potentials compared to days not identified as a warm & dry spell. Last, we present a brief overview of the evaluation of the models in terms of their potential for estimating PV energy production, which has been performed by Iberdrola.

Source: Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16812091

Authors: Veerman, Menno, van Heerwaarden, Chiel, Paredes Beato, Daniel, Sánchez, Nuria

Institutions: Wageningen University & Research, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

Language: English

Topic: Solar Radiation and Photovoltaics

Subfield: Artificial Intelligence

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDGs: Climate action, Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: green

Funder: European Commission