Climate impacts on renewable energy resources
Mentor: William Cabos Narváez
Email: william.cabos@uah.es
Phone: (+34) 918854944
University: Universidad de Alcalá
Partner Host Institution: N.A
Keywords: Wind energy ; regional modelling ; climate variability ; predictability; climate change; seasonal forecast

Climate impacts on renewable energy resources

Renewable resources such as wind, solar or hydraulic power are highly sensitive to climate fluctuations, both to the shorter year-to-year variations, that impose an undesired irregularity in their supply, as well as, most likely, to the longer term modifications related to global climate change. Our research is aimed at providing climatic diagnostics useful to the evaluation and planning of renewable resources at these time scales, with an emphasis on wind energy potential in the Iberian Peninsula . In addition to the application of standard multivariate statistical techniques on the available data, our activity relies heavily on the use of regional climate models, specifically of the modelling system ROM. ROM constitutes a novel approach in the field of regional modelling, as it couples a regional atmospheric model to a global, rather than a regional, ocean, overcoming a number of drawbacks such as the problematic prescription of lateral boundary conditions in the regional ocean model. High resolution simulations with ROM downscaling present-time and projected future conditions are currently underway. The analysis of their output is expected to contribute to our understanding of the processes affecting wind energy generation in both onshore and offshore locations in the Iberian area.

Departament: Physics and Mathematics
Research Group: Climate Physics
More Information: http://www3.uah.es/clima/
https://www.uah.es/es/investigacion/unidades-de-investigacion/grupos-de-investigacion/Fisica-del-Clima/
Relevants projects on the area: Proyecto ESCENA http://www.mapama.gob.es/es/ceneam/grupos-de-trabajo-y-seminarios/seminarioPNACC/07-proyecto_nacional_ESCENA-UCLM_tcm7-158541.pdf
Relevants publications on the area: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/we.1893/abstract
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014MS000357/abstract