Assessing low frequency variations in solar and wind power and their climatic teleconnections

Abstract

Power grids are being increasingly exposed to climatic variability due to the addition of renewables, but low frequency climate variations are often poorly captured in the measuring campaigns. We analyzed the co-occurrence of low frequency variations in the wind and solar resources over Argentina, and discuss climatic mechanisms behind those variations. We found low complementarity between periods of high and low availability of wind and solar resources. We found a negative relationship between the wind resource and the Antarctic Oscillation. Regarding the solar resource, we found a negative relationship with an index of the El Nin ~o phenomenon; we also found positive relationships with two oceanic indices of the Atlantic variability. The relationships with these Atlantic drivers seem to be associated to low frequency variations, while El Nin ~o relates to inter annual variations. Composites of oceanic and atmo- spheric anomalies reveal that changes in cloudiness respond to variations in the flux of water vapor over South America which, in turn, seem to be part of the atmospheric features of El Nin ~ o; and are also coherent with previous studies linking precipitation variations over subtropical South America and Sea Surface Temperatures over the Atlantic.