The impact of climate change on photovoltaic power potential in Southwestern Colombia

Climate change impact on photovoltaic power potential in South America

“…These changes could cause decreases in PV potential varying from 0.5% to 2.4%. These results are consistent with those presented in [1]. The southeast and northwest would experience increases in solar irradiance (with a maximum of 74W m −2 ), resulting in an increase in PV potential of up to 6.6%.…”

“…To assess the impact of climate change on PV potential in South America, we compare the difference in PV power potential between the reference period and the estimated PV power potential at the end of the century (2070-2099), following the formulation presented in [1,17,18,33]. We considered the periods 1970-1999 and 2070-2099 to match with a 30-year life cycle of the PV modules [34].…”

“…For instance, to determine the impact of RSDS variations, we set ΔTAS = ΔWS = 0, while keeping the remaining variables (TAS, WS) constant at their annual mean during the reference period . We adopt the same methodology as previously presented in [1,17,33]. However, it is essential to acknowledge that isolating the exact contribution of each variable is not entirely feasible due to the presence of cross-products in the last two terms of equation (5).…”

“…Addressing the impact of climate change requires a global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition to a more sustainable and resilient future. Renewable energy sources (RES), particularly solar photovoltaic (PV), are key in combating the adverse effects of climate change due to their low operating cost, scalability, nearly emission-free during operation, improved efficiency, and increasingly competitive costs [1][2][3][4]. However, the efficiency of PV panels depends on meteorological conditions, and climate change could affect PV production [5].…”

“…While Brazil has the largest existing solar infrastructure in the region, Chile has the highest growth rate of solar infrastructure [23,24]. Some studies have attempted to estimate the PV potential in South America [25][26][27] and in specific South American regions [1,[28][29][30][31][32]. However, none of these research projects assess the impact of climate change on the PV potential for the entire South American continent.…”