Complementarity Between Renewable Energy Sources and Regions - Brazilian Case

The benefits of complementarity between renewable energy sources have been presented as having a positive impact, but it has been neglected in generation expansion planning studies. In this paper the complementarity between renewable energy sources and regions of Brazil is characterized and the correlation coefficients are analyzed. A methodology is also proposed to optimize the complementarity between the sources, reducing the energy storage requirements. The methodology is applied to the Brazilian case to meet the projected demand for 2050 with a 100% renewable system and the complementarity is analyzed. The characterization of the data allowed us to propose five solar regions, four wind regions, three hydro regions and a region to represent the biomass. It was possible to find complementarity (negative correlation) of: 0.97 between hydro regions; 0.86 between wind and hydro regions and; 0.96 between biomass and hydro. The proposed methodology allowed us to know which regions and their respective technologies best benefit the electrical system, being the North for solar and the Northeast for wind. Finally, it was possible to reduce the demand for water storage with sources and regions that complement the seasonal hydro drought period.