Abstract
With solar and wind power generation reaching unprecedented growth rates globally, much research effort has recently gone into a comprehensive mapping of the worldwide potential of these variable renewable electricity (VRE) sources. From a perspective of energy systems analysis, the locations with the strongest resources may not necessarily be the best candidates for investment in new power plants, since the distance from existing grid and road infrastructures and the temporal variability of power generation also matter. To inform energy planning and policymaking, cost-optimisation models for energy systems must be fed with adequate data on potential sites for VRE plants, including costs reflective of resource strength, grid expansion needs and full hourly generation profiles. Such data, tailored to energy system models, has been lacking up to now. In this study, we present a new open-source and open-access all-Africa dataset of “supply regions” for solar photovoltaic and onshore wind power to feed energy models and inform capacity expansion planning.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 664 |
| Journal | Scientific Data |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 31 Oct 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors wish to thank T. Hadjicostas, T. Gumunyu, G. Chileshe, B. Batidzirai, L. Tatry, M. Tot, I. Gherboudj, M. Nababa, and J. Hampp for inspiring comments and discussions. We acknowledge the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) for providing the ERA5 reanalysis. The analysis was performed as part of IRENA’s “Planning and Prospects for Renewable Power” series and is intended to feed into IRENA’s ongoing support to AUDA-NEPAD in the development of the African Continental Power Systems Masterplan.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
Copyright:
Copyright 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.