An Open-Access Web-Based Tool to Access Global, Hourly Wind and Solar PV Generation Time-Series Derived from the MERRA Reanalysis Dataset

Madeleine McPherson, Theofilos Sotiropoulos-Michalakakos, Danny Harvey Ld and Bryan Karney
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Madeleine McPherson: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada
Theofilos Sotiropoulos-Michalakakos: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada
Danny Harvey Ld: Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 100 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3G3, Canada
Bryan Karney: Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, 35 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-14

Abstract: Wind and solar energy resources are an increasingly large fraction of generation in global electricity systems. However, the variability of these resources necessitates new datasets and tools for understanding their economics and integration in electricity systems. To enable such analyses and more, we have developed a free web-based tool (Global Renewable Energy Atlas & Time-series, or GRETA) that produces hourly wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) generation time series for any location on the globe. To do so, this tool applies the Boland–Ridley–Laurent and Perez models to NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) solar irradiance reanalysis dataset, and the Archer and Jacobson model to the MERRA wind reanalysis dataset to produce resource and power data, for a given technology’s power curve. This paper reviews solar and wind resource datasets and models, describes the employed algorithms, and introduces the web-based tool.

Keywords: wind power time series data; solar photovoltaic time series data; reanalysis data; open-access web tool (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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