Assessment of solar and wind energy resources in Serbia

Serbia aims to improve the composition of its energy sources and increase the contribution of renewable and sustainable energies to meet its growing electricity production demand. Results of many studies and numerous measurement campaigns suggest that Serbia has a considerable potential for the solar and wind energy utilization for electricity generation. The objective of this article is to present a brief assessment of these solar and wind resources. Meteorological data from a network of meteorological stations covering a period of 30 yr are used to obtain annual energy density distributions from these two climatic sources. These results, summarizing in an abbreviated form comprehensive research efforts culminating in the last decade, are presented in an archival publication for the first time. This assessment indicates that southern and southeastern Serbia are very good regions for the solar energy utilization. Southern Banat, mountain ranges of eastern and southeastern Serbia, and the lower Danube river valley are the most promising regions for the wind power plant constructions. Final objective of this article is to show that the problem of individual intermittency of wind and solar power potentials could be compensated in Serbia by their complementary character. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.