Smart renewable electricity portfolios in West Africa

Sterl, Sebastian; Vanderkelen, Inne; Chawanda, Celray James; Russo, Daniel; Brecha, Robert J.; Griensven, Ann van; Lipzig, Nicole Van; Thiery, Wim

doi:10.1038/s41893-020-0539-0

Cited by 96 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The temporal variability is lower (reaching more than a −50 W m −2 difference) in northern West Africa and higher (reaching more than a +50 W m −2 difference) in southern West Africa compared with the annual mean. This variability is mainly driven by the WAM, which occurs during the wet season (Sultan et al, 2003).…”

Section: Spatial Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This seasonality is dominated by high cloudiness caused by the moist monsoon winds from the southwest during the wet season and the dry Harmattan winds from the northeast during the dry season. To overcome such seasonal differences in power generation, a smart combination with other power sources (e.g., hydropower and wind) is necessary to reduce storage capacity requirements (Sterl et al, 2020) and related costs for long-term storage.…”

Section: Challenges For the West African Power Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

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Photovoltaic power potential in West Africa using long-term satellite data

et al. 2020

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Abstract. This paper addresses long-term historical changes in solar irradiance in West Africa (3 to 20∘ N and 20∘ W to 16∘ E) and the implications for photovoltaic systems. Here, we use satellite irradiance (Surface Solar Radiation Data Set – Heliosat, Edition 2.1 – SARAH-2.1) and temperature data from a reanalysis (ERA5) to derive photovoltaic yields. Based on 35 years of data (1983–2017), the temporal and regional variability as well as long-term trends in global and direct horizontal irradiance are analyzed. Furthermore, a detailed time series analysis is undertaken at four locations. According to the high spatial resolution SARAH-2.1 data record (0.05∘×0.05∘), solar irradiance is largest (up to a 300 W m−2 daily average) in the Sahara and the Sahel zone with a positive trend (up to 5 W m−2 per decade) and a lower temporal variability (<75 W m−2 between 1983 and 2017 for daily averages). In contrast, the solar irradiance is lower in southern West Africa (between 200 W m−2 and 250 W m−2) with a negative trend (up to −5 W m−2 per decade) and a higher temporal variability (up to 150 W m−2). The positive trend in the north is mostly connected to the dry season, whereas the negative trend in the south occurs during the wet season. Both trends show 95 % significance. Photovoltaic (PV) yields show a strong meridional gradient with the lowest values of around 4 kWh kWp−1 in southern West Africa and values of more than 5.5 kWh kWp−1 in the Sahara and Sahel zone.

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Section: Spatial Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Challenges For the West African Power Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

Photovoltaic power potential in West Africa using long-term satellite data

et al. 2020

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“…Reservoir hydropower can also show important synergies with variable renewable energy (VRE), even if not equipped with pumping functionality. For example, a study investigating hydro-wind-solar synergies for West Africa found that combining technologies while also improving connectivity between power systems can bring important synergies for the system across a wide range of flexibility time scales (Sterl at al. 2020).…”

Section: The Role Of Hydropower As An Energy Storage Resourcementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, there is a seasonal complementarity: the VRE resources in the north produce more during the dry season, leading to a more balanced overall production. Finally, oversizing wind and solar capacity and adding pump-back capabilities to hydropower reservoirs were found to increase system resilience to climate change related droughts (Sterl at al. 2020).…”

Section: The Role Of Hydropower As An Energy Storage Resourcementioning

confidence: 99%

Deploying Storage for Power Systems in Developing Countries

2020

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Program is a global partnership convened by the World Bank Group through ESMAP to foster international cooperation to develop sustainable energy storage solutions for developing countries. For more information visit: https://www.esmap.org/energystorage Deploying Storage for Power Systems in Developing Countries Policy and Regulatory Considerations ABOUT ESMAP The Energy Sector Management Assistance Program (ESMAP) is a partnership between the World Bank and 18 partners to help low and middle-income countries reduce poverty and boost growth through sustainable energy solutions. ESMAP's analytical and advisory services are fully integrated within the World Bank's country financing and policy dialogue in the energy sector. Through the World Bank Group (WBG), ESMAP works to accelerate the energy transition required to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7 (SDG7) to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. It helps to shape WBG strategies and programs to achieve the WBG Climate Change Action Plan targets. https://esmap.org

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“…Dynamical downscaling of global climate models (GCMs) with a regional climate model (RCM) is an approach employed to obtain higher spatial and temporal resolved climate information at the regional to local scale (Rummukainen, 2016;Giorgi, 2019;Gutowski et al, 2016;. This GCM-RCM model chain data is typically used as the basis for impact studies and long-term adaptation planning by impact modelling groups, stakeholders, and national climate assessment reports (Ahrens et al, 2014;Kjellström et al, 2016;Dalelane et al, 2018;Rineau et al, 2019;Sørland et al, 2020;Sterl et al, 2020;Vanderkelen et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COSMO-CLM Regional Climate Simulations in the CORDEX framework: a review

Sørland

Brogli

Pothapakula

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. In the last decade, the Climate Limited-area Modeling (CLM) Community has contributed to the Coordinated Re- gional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) with an extensive set of regional climate simulations. Using several versions of the COSMO-CLM community model, ERA-Interim reanalysis and eight Global Climate Models from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5) were dynamically downscaled with horizontal grid spacings of 0.44° (∼50 km), 0.22° (∼25 km) and 0.11° (∼12 km) over the CORDEX domains Europe, South Asia, East Asia, Australasia and Africa. This major effort resulted in 80 regional climate simulations publicly available through the Earth System Grid Fed- eration (ESGF) web portals for use in impact studies and climate scenario assessments. Here we review the production of these simulations and assess their results in terms of mean near-surface temperature and precipitation to aid the future design of the COSMO-CLM model simulations. It is found that a domain-specific parameter tuning is beneficial, while increasing horizontal model resolution (from 50 to 25 or 12 km grid spacing) alone does not always improve the performance of the simulation. Moreover, the COSMO-CLM performance depends on the driving data. This is generally more important than the dependence on horizontal resolution, model version and configuration. Our results emphasize the importance of performing regional climate projections in a coordinated way, where guidance from both the global (GCM) and regional (RCM) climate modelling communities is needed to increase the reliability of the GCM-RCM modelling chain.

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Smart renewable electricity portfolios in West Africa

Cited by 96 publications

References 52 publications

Photovoltaic power potential in West Africa using long-term satellite data

Photovoltaic power potential in West Africa using long-term satellite data

Deploying Storage for Power Systems in Developing Countries

COSMO-CLM Regional Climate Simulations in the CORDEX framework: a review

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