Abstract
Several studies have determined that Mexico has great renewable energy potential, and one of its most abundant resources is solar energy, a source that could be exploited to provide development opportunities to its population, however it is necessary to calculate the amount of this source available. The aim of this study was to assess solar irradiance at urban communities in the Baja California Peninsula. For this purpose data recorded every 10 min during 6 years (2010–2015) by the Automatic Meteorological Stations (AMSs) and Synoptic Automatic Meteorological Stations (SAMSs) of the National Meteorological System of Mexico (NMS) were analyzed. Satellite data from the Surface and Meteorology Energy System (SMSE) were also used, and a linear regression was performed to compare the measured and satellite data. The highest R-square value found was 0.97 and the lowest was 0.82. Daily patterns show that Cabo San Lucas had the highest average solar irradiation/day, with 1000 W/m2. Considering the urban areas, total solar irradiation reaching the Peninsula is about 447 × 106 kWh, which represents around 447 times the total Baja California Peninsula yearly energy consumption. Geographic Information System (GIS) helped to identify the zones and months with higher solar resources. May is the month registering the highest irradiation, more than 8.1 kWh/m2/day, while the average solar resource for the whole Peninsula is 5.7 kWh/m2/day.
Highlights
According to [1] two thirds of world electricity production comes from fossil fuels, followed by hydroelectric plants (16.5%), nuclear plants (10.6%), biofuels and waste (2%), while geothermal, solar, wind and other sources make up the remaining 3.3%
Automatic Meteorological Stations (AMSs) and Synoptic Automatic Meteorological Stations (SAMSs) results needed to be calculated monthly as well to identify the relationships between these source, Surface and Meteorology Energy System (SMSE) gives monthly and annual irradiation data; its resolution is low but they were used to help the interpolation
This study presents the magnitude ranges of solar energy in the Baja California Peninsula, which almost 2.4% of urban communities are not electrified [16]
Summary
According to [1] two thirds of world electricity production comes from fossil fuels, followed by hydroelectric plants (16.5%), nuclear plants (10.6%), biofuels and waste (2%), while geothermal, solar, wind and other sources make up the remaining 3.3%. Electricity in Mexico is mainly generated from fossil fuels and Mexico occupies the tenth place in global oil production [2]. Solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity generation plays an important role among the worldwide renewable energy technologies because it is a clean and environmentally friendly source of energy [2]. Since the early 2000s, photovoltaic solar systems have become one of the most popular renewable energy sources in the world and their global market share has grown exponentially [3], driven mainly by industrialized countries like Germany, Japan, Spain and the United States, as well as China. In the past few years, the market prices and underlying costs of PV systems have shrunk dramatically, which makes PV competitive with fossil fuels in many regions and if existing fossil fuel subsidies were to be reduced, renewables like PV would become even more
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