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PV and Wind Power – Complementary Technologies

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DOI: 10.4229/26thEUPVSEC2011-6CV.1.32

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 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

PV AND WIND POWER – COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES

A.-K. Gerlach1,2, D. Stetter3, J. Schmid4, Ch. Breyer1,2,5

1
Q-Cells SE, Sonnenallee 17 - 21, 06766 Bitterfeld-Wolfen OT Thalheim, Germany,
2
Universität Kassel, Wilhelmshöher Allee 73, 34121 Kassel, Germany, E-mail: Ann-Katrin.Gerlach@student.uni-kassel.de
3
German Aerospace Center, Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, Pfaffenwaldring 38-40, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
4
Fraunhofer IWES, Königstor 59, 34119 Kassel, Germany
5
now with: Reiner Lemoine Institut gGmbH, Ostendstraße 25, 12459 Berlin, Germany
Phone +49 (0) 30 5304 2000, E-mail: christian.breyer@rl-institut.de

ABSTRACT
PV and wind power are the major renewable power technologies in most regions on earth. Depending on the
interaction of solar and wind resources, PV and wind power industry will become competitors or allies. Time
resolved geospatial data of global horizontal irradiation and wind speeds are used to simulate the power feed-in of PV
and wind power plants assumed to be installed on an equally rated power basis in every region of a 1°x1° mesh of
latitude and longitude between 65°N and 65°S. An overlap of PV and wind power full load hours is defined as
measure for the complementarity of both technologies and identified as ranging between 5% and 25% of total PV and
wind power feed-in. Critical overlap full load hours are introduced as a measure for energy losses that would appear
if the grid was dimensioned only for one power plant of PV or wind. In result, they do not exceed 9% of total feed-in
but are mainly around 3% - 4%. Thus the two major renewable power technologies must be characterized by
complementing each other.

Keywords
Photovoltaics, Wind power, Resource Assessment, Energy Options

1 INTRODUCTION
The global energy supply potential of PV and wind
Sun and wind are among those energy resources which power exceeds by far this energy demand of mankind.
will hardly ever cease and which are available both in The technical energy potential of solar PV and wind is
abundant amounts and for free all over the world. The assessed differently by various authors but always by
markets of photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy are factors or orders higher than total global energy demand.
continuously growing at a fast pace, however most of the In 1978 Weingart estimated the solar PV potential energy
renewable potential still remains untapped with regards to flow usable for mankind being higher than 100 TW.[4] In
a possible use in respective power plants and systems. 2003, the German Advisory Council on Global Change
For that reason and considering limited grid capacities, derived a harvestable energy flow potential for wind
the degree of competition between these two energy power of about 90 TW and a practically unlimited
technologies is not yet conceivable. In order to assess if potential for PV.[5] However, these numbers have been
PV and wind power technology and respective industries adjusted in 2011 to a technical potential of about 54 TW
are competitors at all, an analysis of the extent to which for wind power and about 8,900 TW for solar energy and,
wind and PV power plants feed-in simultaneously has to thus also for PV [6]. In the 2008 study ‘energy
be conducted. PV and wind power are both fluctuating [r]evolution’ by Greenpeace the utilizable energy flow
energy conversion technologies, however low has been estimated to about 35 TW for wind power and
competition in time resolved feed-in would indicate a 150 TW for PV.[7] Also in 2008, Sawin and Moomaw
tendency for mutual balancing effects since energy estimated the energy flow potential to about 145 TW for
harvest would be anti-correlated. As a consequence this PV and about 55 TW for wind power.[8] In 2009, Lu et
would reduce residual load requirements. The purpose of al. estimated the energy flow for wind power to about 80
this work is to understand the competitive or – 150 TW.[9] In 2009 Jacobson and Delucchi derived an
complementary characteristics of the two major energy flow of 40 – 85 TW for wind and 580 TW for
renewable power technologies. This work is part of a PV.[3] In 2011 the IPCC derived a theoretically utilizable
more comprehensive view on the economics of hybrid energy flow of about 190 TW for wind power and about
PV power plants.[1] 120,000 TW for PV.[10] An overview on the estimations
is given in Table 1. Other authors clearly pointed out that
wind and solar energy will become the backbone of the
2 SOLAR AND WIND RESOURCE AVAILABI- global energy supply and that this could happen already
LITY before 2030.[11] The insight that establishing a solar
powered society is necessary, dates back many decades
The total and global primary energy demand has been and was emphasized for instance by Hubbert already in
about 151,200 TWhth in the year 2008, i.e. about 17 TW 1949.[12]
of continuous energy flow [2]. However, a substantial
amount of this primary energy is wasted in inefficient
energy use based on burning fuels, i.e. direct use of
valuable electricity would reduce the aforementioned
energy flow to about 11.5 TW provided for instance by
solar PV or wind power [3].

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Technical Potential referenced PV Wind 3.2 MODELING OF POWER PLANTS

[TW] [TW]
Weingart 1978 [4] > 100 - Two power plants of 1 GW have been simulated for
WBGU 2003 [5] infinite 90 every 1°x1° area within 65°S and 65°N, one of PV and
Greenpeace 2008 [7] 150 35 one of wind power. For the wind power plant it is
Sawin and Moomaw 2008 [8] 145 55
assumed that in future hub heights of wind power plants
Lu et al. 2009 [9] - 80 - 150
Jacobson and Delucchi 2009 [3] 580 40 - 85
will typically reach about 150 m. The available wind
WBGU 2011 [6] 8900 54 speed data give wind speeds at a height of 50 m. These
IPCC SRREN 2011 [10] 120000 190 wind speeds are converted into wind speeds at 150 m
Current Global Energy Demand
height, the assumed future hub height. The common
including waste of heat [TW] [2] 17.0 model to characterize this conversion is the logarithmic
direct energy demand [TW] [3] 11.5 wind shear law.[16] Roughness lengths that are used have
been provided by DLR as mentioned above. For the
Table 1: Technical potential of PV and wind power simulation of wind power plants it is assumed that new
versus the current gloabl energy demand. power plants will be built with the highest and most
powerful wind turbines available on the market today.
The power curve of the largest ENERCON wind turbine
3 METHODOLOGY E-126 has been used as reference. This turbine offers a
rated power of 7,500 kW, a typical height of 135 m and a
3.1 METHODOLOGY DATASET storm control which would enable reduced turbine
operation in the event of extremely high wind speeds, and
In this work, the global potentials of wind speed and prevents the otherwise frequent shutdowns and resulting
global horizontal irradiation (GHI) are illustrated. Time yield losses.[17] For this work, the power curve has been
resolved global geospatial data covering a period of 22 replicated and used for the model. Finally, the air density
years (1984 to 2005) are provided by NASA [13] is taken into account. The described power curve is only
composed of GHI data (Surface Meteorology and Solar valid for an air density of ρ0=1.225 kg/m³. Power changes
Energy SSE Release 6.0 – underlying data obtained from with differences of air densities. To convert the results
the Surface Radiation Budget 3.0 portion of NASA’s for the real density the ratio of real to normalized air
Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment GEWEX) density is used. Real air density is calculated with data of
and wind speed data (Modern Era Retrospective-analysis air pressure and temperature. As the power changes in
for Research and Applications MERRA). These data dependence on the air density respective adjustments
have been prepared for energy related analyses by the have to be included into the model. Two fundamental
German Aerospace Center. Hourly time steps for GHI are impacts of the air density on the power curve can be
obtained using a clear sky index approach, taking into observed: as first order effect a linear reduction of the
account hourly clear sky irradiance data provided by power with the ratio of local air density to that of sea
DLR. level and as second order effect a shift of the power curve
to higher wind speeds. Due to lack of respective data the
Based on the pre-processed resource data, possible hourly second order effect is not included in the model. Finally,
power generation of PV and wind power plants has been the power change is considered proportional to the air
derived, averaged for a global 1°x1° grid of latitude and density. The resulting power generation is scaled to
longitude (within 65°S and 65°N). Ambient conditions match with the assumed 1 GW installed capacity per
that are relevant for the simulation of power plants are 1°x1° area of the simulation grid and therefore multiplied
the roughness length, air density and temperatures. by a factor of about 133.
Roughness lengths are dependent on the orography of the
landscape and obstacles on its surface such as trees or Availability of wind power plants is given by the time
buildings. The rougher the landscape, the higher is the that a wind turbine is working. This time is influenced by
roughness length and the larger is the difference between failures or by very high wind speeds when the power
wind speeds near ground to those at a higher altitude. plant is turned off. Availabilities have been analysed by
Data of roughness lengths are based on the NASA source Faulstich et al.[18] The assumed availabilities in this
and like GHI and wind speed prepared and provided by paper are based on their results and amount to 95%
DLR. The air density has been calculated from monthly onshore. To include the availability in feed-in a random
global average air pressure, provided by NASA. Data for function has been used to avoid influencing high peaks.
monthly global average temperatures have also been 5% of the hours are chosen randomly and set to zero.
taken from NASA. Since there are temperature Another way to include availability would be to reduce
differences between day and night and PV feed-in is only power consequently by 5%. The second approach might
affected by day temperatures, the average data have been be more reasonable since not only one power plant is
recalculated to get more realistic values for daytimes. assumed but more than 133 and the chance that only one
Based on conclusions of AlBusairi and Möller [14] and or two are stopped is much higher than all at once.
of Montes et al. [15] the assumption is made, that Nevertheless, the more conservative first approach has
differences of day temperature to average temperature are been taken into account.
between 4 and 10 K, dependent on the location and its
proximity to water. Coasts are assumed to have lower The calculation for the power generation by PV modules
temperature differences because of the water storing heat is based on a model described by Huld et al.[19] This
longer than soil and leading to a steadier climate. comprehensive model takes into account several
parameters affecting module efficiency such as
temperature and irradiation. However, the published
model parameters are restricted to crystalline silicon

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photovoltaic modules. The yield of PV power plants is

increased by installing the modules optimally tilted. This Critical overlap FLh are defined by the dimension of the
means they are placed with a slope that causes the best grid. In this work it is assumed that the grid has to be
average irradiation angle and guarantees the highest yield designed for the capacity of at least one of the two power
for the year. The coefficient of improvement that is technologies within a region of 1°x1° of latitude and
achieved by tilting the modules over a horizontal longitude. This is why critical overlap FLh have been
installation was calculated for each month by Breyer identified for the amount of feed-in power exceeding the
[20,1], and is now used for the simulation of a PV power rated power of either PV or wind power plants equally
plant. The inverter, assumed for this work, is the Sunny installed in respect to rated power capacity within a
Central 1000 MV manufactured by SMA Solar region of 1°x1° of latitude and longitude. Overlap and
Technology AG. It represents one of the most installed critical overlap have been calculated for every hour and
inverters in the PV market. Based on a model of Schmidt added up to FLh, too. Calculations have been done for all
et al. [21] a function of the inverter efficiency was years between 1984 and 2005 and are represented here by
simulated. PV module performance deteriorates over results of the exemplary year 2005.
time. A degradation of 0.3% per year is considered in this
paper. Since the simulated power plant shall be
representative for every year, a medial degradation for 25 4 RESULTS
years is used. The amount of 25 years is based on the
supposition that this is the expected lifetime of a solar 4.1 AVAILABILITY OF RESOURCES
power plant. Some other aspects have to be considered to
get the final power output of the PV power plant. These The global energy supply potential of PV and wind
are e.g. clouding, snow and pollution. An additional power by far exceeds the energy demand of human
reduction of the generated power by 3% is assumed to mankind. Long-term annual averages can be derived to
account for the cumulated effects that reduce the overall indicate the resource availability on a global scale. Figure
performance but cannot be addressed in detail. 1 shows this for GHI. Due to the irradiation conditions,
the total amounts increase from the polar caps towards
Power generation of PV and wind power plants is the equator. Another influencing factor for the occurrence
normalized to full load hours (FLh) and aggregated for of GHI at the ground is the elevation above sea level. The
periods of months and years. For this, hourly power feed- higher the location, the less atmosphere has to be passed.
in has been added up for a year and divided by the rated Caused by tropical climate which leads to higher
power. Such data enable the extraction of overlap FLh of evaporation from oceans and thus to clouding and rain,
PV and wind power plants in order to eventually derive irradiation at the equator is lower than at regions north
the critical extent of these overlap FLh (Equation 1). and south of it.

Figure 2 shows the resource availability for wind. Apart

(∑ ( ))
from global wind systems, the major influence on the
wind speed above ground is the surface roughness length.
( ∑ ) Therefore, high wind speeds are observed above areas
{( ) } such as oceans and deserts. On the other hand, in the
equatorial regions high roughness lengths and
Equation 1: Definition of overlap and critical overlap consequently low wind speeds are observed.
full load hours. Abbreviations stand for: full load hours
(FLh), overlap (OL), critical overlap (COL), hours of the
year (i), power (P), photovoltaic (PV) and wind power
(wind).

Figure 1: Annual long-term average for global horizontal irradiance (GHI; in kWh per m² and year).

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 26th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

Figure 2: Annual long-term average for wind speeds (in m per s).

4.2 POWER FEED-IN wind power plants are set to 1 GW per 1°x1° grid box.
Simulating a fixed optimally tilted PV power plant and a
By using simulations of PV and wind power plants wind power plant of 150 m hub height, of 1 GW
(section 3.2) it is possible to get hourly feed-in of respectively, generates the hourly feed-in power potential
prospective power plants (Figure 3). For analysing for all hours within the 22 years data series.
purposes the respective rated power capacities of PV and

Figure 3: Feed-in power potential of 1 GW installed PV (left) and wind power (right) capacity according to historic data.
These illustrations show feed-in of a certain hour which is between 12 and 13 UTC, 21 st of June 2005.

Figure 3 shows conditions at one of these hours which is

between 12 and 13 UTC, 21st of June 2005. At this time
the sun passes the Greenwich meridian and the other
hemisphere of the earth is dark, reflecting no feed-in. At
the same time, wind power is high in parts of Australia
and north-east Canada. Further there are some regions in
Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Eastern Europe that show
high wind feed-in. It is conspicuous that these areas show
less PV feed-in.

4.3 FULL LOAD HOURS

The feed-in data lead to annual aggregated full load hours

for both energy technologies. These are presented in
Figure 4.

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caused by the tropical climate. Even though there is the

most direct irradiation, there is not the highest yield at the
equator. In fact, this direct irradiation causes more
evaporation from oceans and that leads to clouding and
later to rain. Irradiation on the ground decreases with
clouding and so less FLh are generated in the tropics. In
the far northern and southern hemisphere the FLh reduce
greatly due to increased seasonal variation and, hence
lower GHI. Full load hours of wind power are low at the
equator and increase towards the polar caps. At the
equator the wind has its least FLh. Also conditioned by
Figure 4: Full load hours of fixed optimally tilted PV climate, winds on the hemispheres turn around before
power plants (top), of wind power plants of 150 m hub they reach the equator. Comparing both plots for PV and
height (center) and of hybrid PV and wind power plants wind power in Figure 4, it is evident that mostly those
(bottom). Calculations are performed for all hours of the places with much wind have less PV FLh and vice versa.
year 2005 and all coordinates of a 1°x1° mesh of latitude The addition of PV and wind FLh in Figure 4 shows that
and longitude within 65° N/S. areas with high amounts of both PV and wind FLh are
quite rare. Examples are southern Argentina or the
Due to the occurrence of GHI, the PV plot of Figure 4 eastern coast of Somalia. The overlap of PV and wind
shows that places with most FLh are north and south of power defined in Equation 1 is shown in Figure 5.
the equator, but not at the equator itself. This effect is

Figure 5: Ratio of overlap full load hours of fixed optimally tilted PV power plants and wind power plants of 150 m hub
height to the sum of PV and wind full load hours. Calculations are based on results depicted in Figure 4 and definition in
Equation 1 and are performed for all hours of the year 2005 and all coordinates of a 1°x1° mesh of latitude and longitude
within 65° N/S.

Figure 6: Ratio of critical overlap full load hours of fixed optimally tilted PV power plants and wind power plants of 150 m
hub height to the sum of PV and wind full load hours. Calculations are based on results depicted in Figure 4 and definition in
Equation 1 and are performed for all hours of the year 2005 and all coordinates of a 1°x1° mesh of latitude and longitude
within 65° N/S.

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Global average of the ratio of overlap FLh to the sum of www.wbgu.de/fileadmin/templates/dateien/veroeffe

PV and wind power FLh is about 15% ranging between ntlichungen/hauptgutachten/jg2003/wbgu_jg2003_
5% - 25%. High overlaps, for example, occur in southern engl.pdf.
China, in Somalia and Ethiopia as well as in eastern [6] [WBGU] – German Advisory Council on Global
Brazil or north of Argentina and Bolivia. Very little to no Change, 2011. Welt im Wandel:
overlap is visible at the equator. This comes from the low Gesellschaftsvertrag für eine Große
wind FLh in this region. Finally the amount of critical Transformation, WBGU, Berlin,
overlap FLh is counted and displayed in Figure 6. www.wbgu.de/fileadmin/templates/dateien/veroeffe
ntlichungen/hauptgutachten/jg2011/wbgu_jg2011.p
Critical overlap FLh are defined for that amount of feed- df.
in power exceeding the rated power of either PV or wind [7] Teske S., Schäfer O., Zervos A., Béranek J.,
power plants installed within a region of 1°x1° of latitude Tunmore S., Krewitt W., Simon S., Pregger T.,
and longitude (Equation 1). This is the power for that the Schmid S., Graus W., Blomen W., 2008. energy
grid has to be dimensioned, at least the exceeding power [r]evolution: A Sustainable World Energy Outlook,
would have to be regulated and counted as energy loss. Greenpeace International and EREC, Amsterdam
The figure shows that energy losses worldwide would and Brussels, October,
amount to less than 9%. However there are only few www.greenpeace.org/denmark/PageFiles/205220/n
regions with high critical overlap since at most places ew-global-energy-r-evolution.pdf.
critical overlap does not exceed 3% - 4%. Those few [8] Sawin J.L. and Moomaw W.R., 2008. An enduring
regions that have a higher critical overlap than 5% can be energy future, in: Sarke L. (ed.): State of the World:
found on earlier maps, basically because of high amounts Into a Warming World, The Worldwatch Institute,
of wind FLh. Washington,
www.worldwavgjnorg/fimesotdg/SOW39_chaq4.p
dg.
5 CONCLUIONS [9] Lu X., McElroy M.B., Kiviluoma J., 2009. Global
potential for wind-generated electricity,
According to this work’s approach, it can be stated that Proceedings of the National Academy of Science,
PV and wind power are energy technologies which PNAS early edition,
complement one another. For places where both www.pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0904101106
resources are available to build power plants, it is [10] [IPCC] - Intergovernal Panel on Climate Change,
strongly recommendable for plant operators, 2011. Special Report on Renewable Energy
manufacturers and respective associations to work Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (SRREN),
together for fast growing PV and wind power capacity. IPCC WG III – Mitigation of Climate Change,
Due to nearly no competition in time resolved power Geneva, http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report.
feed-in of PV and wind power plants, a perfect basis is [11] Kohn W., 2010. A world powered predominantly
given for a comprehensive cooperation. Using both by solar and wind energy, in: Schellnhuber, H.J.,
energy technologies will offer complementary power Molina, M., Stern, N., Huber, V., Kadner, S.,
feed-in and further reduces the need for balancing power. (eds.), Global Sustainability – A Nobel Cause,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
[12] Hubbert M.K., 1949. Energy from Fossil Fuels,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Science, 109, 103–109.
[13] Stackhouse P.W. and Whitlock C.H., (eds.), 2008.
The authors would like to thank Joachim Reiß, Till Surface meteorology and Solar Energy (SSE)
Utermöhlen and Ina von Spies for always supporting this release 6.0, NASA SSE 6.0. Earth Science
work and Markus Hlusiak and Dominik Huljić for helpful Enterprise Program, National Aeronautic and Space
discussions. Administration (NASA), Langley,
http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/sse/.
[14] AlBusairi H.A. and Möller H.J., 2010. Performance
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