A new index to evaluate renewable energy potential: A case study on solar, wind and hybrid generation in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

Human activities imply a high and increasing consumption of electricity. In this context, renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy, stand out due to the ecological and economic advantages associated with their use, but bring with them the need for monitoring and analyzing climatic variables such as solar irradiation and wind speed, in order to determine the potential of solar, wind or hybrid (solar and wind) generation of a region. The main objective of the present study was to develop a method to rank the top locations or regions for wind, solar and hybrid electricity generation potential. In addition, two databases were created using spatial interpolation techniques to define values related to solar and wind energy sources in a case study for the state of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil. Thus, using public data from ground stations and satellites, two interpolation procedures were evaluated, Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) and Kriging. Next, the best evaluated method (Kriging) was used to develop a database with exclusive resolution of 0.05° (latitude and longitude) for analysis of the wind, solar and hybrid potential of the Paraíba state, Brazil, used as case study. Finally, an index was created to determine the municipalities in the state that stand out with the best indicators for hybrid generation. From the index created, it was observed that the municipalities belonging to the intermediate geographical regions of Sousa-Cajazeiras and Patos have the best indicators for solar generation, while the regions of Campina Grande and João Pessoa stand out with greatest potential for wind energy production. The region of Campina Grande also had the best results for hybrid generation potential. The IP-PB index was the main contribution of this work, since the method can be applied to different regions of the world for the same purpose and other indexes for estimating renewable production potential were not found in the literature.