Harnessing complementarity of offshore wind and solar to stabilize global offshore wind-solar hybrid power system under climate change

Strong variability in offshore wind and solar resources compromises energy supply stability. Hybrid offshore wind and solar energy system reduces energy variability and enhances climate resilience, but the persistent knowledge gap in how to configuration constitutes a critical barrier to the stable development of global offshore wind–solar energy. Here, 10 downscaled global climate models are ensembled to resolve the complementarity and optimal configuration of wind and solar energy in offshore hybrid energy systems under climate change. Pronounced complementarity is found between offshore wind and solar energy, and it is projected to exhibit a further upward trend under climate change. And this trend demonstrates pronounced spatial heterogeneity, with high-latitude regions exhibiting significantly stronger synergistic characteristics compared to low-latitude zones. Hybrid systems significantly decrease energy variability, requiring higher offshore solar energy ratio at low-mid latitudes and greater offshore wind energy ratio at high latitudes. After optimization, compared to standalone offshore wind, the average coefficient of variation (CV) of offshore wind-solar hybrid power systems decreases by 1.4, and the optimal average power generation density exceeds 6.6 MW/km2. Under climate change, increasing the ratio of offshore wind energy in high-latitude regions and reducing it in low-latitude regions helps mitigate energy fluctuations under climate change. The results support climate-resilient co-development of offshore wind and solar resources in different regions under climate change.