IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v35y2010i11p2514-2524.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The state of solar energy resource assessment in Chile

Author

Listed:
  • Ortega, Alberto
  • Escobar, Rodrigo
  • Colle, Sergio
  • de Abreu, Samuel Luna

Abstract

The Chilean government has determined that a renewable energy quota of up to 10% of the electrical energy generated must be met by 2024. This plan has already sparked interest in wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass power plants in order to introduce renewable energy systems to the country. Solar energy is being considered only for demonstration, small-scale CSP plants and for domestic water heating applications. This apparent lack of interest in solar energy is partly due to the absence of a valid solar energy database, adequate for energy system simulation and planning activities. One of the available solar radiation databases is 20–40 years old, with measurements taken by pyranographs and Campbell–Stokes devices. A second database from the Chilean Meteorological Service is composed by pyranometer readings, sparsely distributed along the country and available from 1988, with a number of these stations operating intermittently. The Chilean government through its National Energy Commission (CNE) has contracted the formulation of a simulation model and also the deployment of network of measurement stations in northern Chile. Recent efforts by the authors have resulted in a preliminary assessment by satellite image processing. Here, we compare the existing databases of solar radiation in Chile. Monthly mean solar energy maps are created from ground measurements and satellite estimations and compared. It is found that significant deviation exists between sources, and that all ground-station measurements display unknown uncertainty levels, thus highlighting the need for a proper, country-wide long-term resource assessment initiative. However, the solar energy levels throughout the country can be considered as high, and it is thought that they are adequate for energy planning activities – although not yet for proper power plant design and dimensioning.

Suggested Citation

  • Ortega, Alberto & Escobar, Rodrigo & Colle, Sergio & de Abreu, Samuel Luna, 2010. "The state of solar energy resource assessment in Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(11), pages 2514-2524.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:35:y:2010:i:11:p:2514-2524
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2010.03.022
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148110001394
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2010.03.022?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cornejo, Lorena & Martín-Pomares, Luis & Alarcon, Diego & Blanco, Julián & Polo, Jesús, 2017. "A through analysis of solar irradiation measurements in the region of Arica Parinacota, Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 197-208.
    2. Corral, Nicolás & Anrique, Nicolás & Fernandes, Dalila & Parrado, Cristóbal & Cáceres, Gustavo, 2012. "Power, placement and LEC evaluation to install CSP plants in northern Chile," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(9), pages 6678-6685.
    3. Rojas, Redlich García & Alvarado, Natalia & Boland, John & Escobar, Rodrigo & Castillejo-Cuberos, Armando, 2019. "Diffuse fraction estimation using the BRL model and relationship of predictors under Chilean, Costa Rican and Australian climatic conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1091-1106.
    4. Sosa-Tinoco, Ian & Peralta-Jaramillo, Juan & Otero-Casal, Carlos & López- Agüera, A. & Miguez-Macho, G. & Rodríguez-Cabo, I., 2016. "Validation of a global horizontal irradiation assessment from a numerical weather prediction model in the south of Sonora–Mexico," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 105-113.
    5. Román-Collado, Rocío & Ordoñez, Manuel & Mundaca, Luis, 2018. "Has electricity turned green or black in Chile? A structural decomposition analysis of energy consumption," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 282-298.
    6. Furlan, Claudia & de Oliveira, Amauri Pereira & Soares, Jacyra & Codato, Georgia & Escobedo, João Francisco, 2012. "The role of clouds in improving the regression model for hourly values of diffuse solar radiation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 240-254.
    7. Ceballos, Juan Carlos & Porfirio, Anthony Carlos Silva & Oricchio, Patricio Alberto & Posse, Gabriela, 2022. "Characterization of the annual regime of surface solar irradiance over Argentine Pampean Region using GL1.2 satellite-based data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 526-537.
    8. Perini de Souza, Noele Bissoli & Sperandio Nascimento, Erick Giovani & Bandeira Santos, Alex Alisson & Moreira, Davidson Martins, 2022. "Wind mapping using the mesoscale WRF model in a tropical region of Brazil," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    9. Escobar, Rodrigo A. & Cortés, Cristián & Pino, Alan & Pereira, Enio Bueno & Martins, Fernando Ramos & Cardemil, José Miguel, 2014. "Solar energy resource assessment in Chile: Satellite estimation and ground station measurements," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 324-332.
    10. Mata-Torres, Carlos & Escobar, Rodrigo A. & Cardemil, José M. & Simsek, Yeliz & Matute, José A., 2017. "Solar polygeneration for electricity production and desalination: Case studies in Venezuela and northern Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 387-398.
    11. Larraín, Teresita & Escobar, Rodrigo, 2012. "Net energy analysis for concentrated solar power plants in northern Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 123-133.
    12. Fernández, Ángel G. & Gomez-Vidal, Judith C., 2017. "Thermophysical properties of low cost lithium nitrate salts produced in northern Chile for thermal energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 120-125.
    13. Ramachandra, T.V. & Jain, Rishabh & Krishnadas, Gautham, 2011. "Hotspots of solar potential in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(6), pages 3178-3186, August.
    14. Parrado, C. & Marzo, A. & Fuentealba, E. & Fernández, A.G., 2016. "2050 LCOE improvement using new molten salts for thermal energy storage in CSP plants," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 505-514.
    15. Pedruzzi, Rizzieri & Silva, Allan Rodrigues & Soares dos Santos, Thalyta & Araujo, Allan Cavalcante & Cotta Weyll, Arthur Lúcide & Lago Kitagawa, Yasmin Kaore & Nunes da Silva Ramos, Diogo & Milani de, 2023. "Review of mapping analysis and complementarity between solar and wind energy sources," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    16. Younes Noorollahi & Mohammad Mohammadi & Hossein Yousefi & Amjad Anvari-Moghaddam, 2020. "A Spatial-Based Integration Model for Regional Scale Solar Energy Technical Potential," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, March.
    17. Bustos, F. & Lazo, C. & Contreras, J. & Fuentes, A., 2016. "Analysis of a solar and aerothermal plant combined with a conventional system in an ESCO model in Chile," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1156-1167.
    18. Hanel, Matías & Escobar, Rodrigo, 2013. "Influence of solar energy resource assessment uncertainty in the levelized electricity cost of concentrated solar power plants in Chile," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 96-100.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:35:y:2010:i:11:p:2514-2524. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.