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J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 1, 043105 (2009); doi:10.1063/1.3168403 (12 pages)

Solar and wind energy resources and prediction

Quanhua Liu 1,
Qinxian Miao 2,
Jue Liu 3,
and Wenli Yang 4

1 Joint Center for Satellite Data Assimilation, Camp Springs, Maryland 20746, USA Map This map
2 Renewable Energy Science and Technology, Bowie, Maryland 20720, USA Map This map
3 Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA Map This map
4 George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA Map This map

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Energy and environmental issues are among the most important problems of public concern. There are increasing debates about whether to resort to drilling more oil and mining more coal or to using renewable, sustainable, and clean resources such as solar and wind energies. Through our analyses and modeling on the basis of the National Center for Environment Prediction data, we confirm that the amount of usable solar and wind energies far exceeds the world’s total energy demand, with technology feasibility being considered. We also investigated the accuracy of forecasting solar and wind energies. Forecasting is important for scheduling applications and storage of solar and wind energies. A realistic approach to maintaining uninterrupted solar-generated electricity at night and during cloudy days would be to store solar energy as heat for use on demand. It is also interesting for people to know how much solar and wind energies are available from their own house roofs and backyards. Using the advanced Google map technique, we have developed a web-based tool with which anyone can find solar and wind energy amounts at any location in the world. The tool is available at www.renewableenergyst.org. The website also provides much additional renewable energy information which is useful to a wide range of audiences, including students, educators, and the general public.

© 2009 American Institute of Physics

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Ron Vogel very much for his corrections on the paper. We thank the anonymous reviewers very much for their very valuable comments. The views, opinions, and findings contained in this report are those of the authors and should not be construed as an official NOAA or US government position, policy, or decision.

Article Outline

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. SOLAR ENERGY
  3. SOLAR ENERGY DISTRIBUTION AT THE EARTH’S SURFACE
  4. WIND ENERGY
  5. SURFACE WIND ENERGY DISTRIBUTION
  6. FIND SOLAR AND WIND RESOURCE BY YOURSELF
  7. SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY FORECASTING
  8. DISCUSSION

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

energy storage, power engineering computing, solar power stations, sustainable development, wind power, wind power plants

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

History
Received 30 October 2008
Accepted 12 June 2009
Published 15 July 2009
Permalink
http://link.aip.org/link/JRSEBH/v1/i4/p043105/s1

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:

19417012 (print)  
19417012 (online)

Publisher:

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

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Figures (click on thumbnails to view enlargements)

FIG. 1
Solar radiation spectrum at the top of the atmosphere and at the surface. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Terrestrial Reference Spectra data (http://www.astm.org/) are used for this figure.
FIG. 1 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 2
Annual global mean downward solar radiation distribution at the surface.
FIG. 2 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 3
Annual regional downward solar radiation at the surface containing the United States.
FIG. 3 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 4
Total global wind power (black line) (three-dimensional integration), southern hemispheric wind power (red line), and northern hemispheric wind power (green line). The number quintillion is 1×1018.
FIG. 4 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 5
Annual global mean wind power at 50 m above the surface.
FIG. 5 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 6
Annual regional wind power at 50 m above the surface containing the United States.
FIG. 6 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 7
Error in 5 day forecasting of downward solar energy at the surface.
FIG. 7 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)
FIG. 8
Error in 5 day forecasting of wind power at 10 m above the surface.
FIG. 8 View Enlargement | Download High Resolution Image (.zip file)

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