COMBINING SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC POWER PLANTS AND WIND FARMS: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO THE SYNERGIC DESIGN

摘要

By considering the opportunity of using the surfaces left free by a wind farm structure to install a complementary PV plant, it is expected to lead to important synergies during the lifetime of the global system. Furthermore, from the production profile point of view, on a utility scale, the combination of wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) plants can lead to a more stable and more reliable energy source by taking advantage of the frequent complementarities of the two plants. Obviously, the mutual interference, due to the co-existence of the two plants, leads to a possible reduction of the load factor for each plant and these interactions have to be considered at an early stage for optimizing the combination design. In this paper, it is presented the analysis of the design aspects for the combination of wind and PV plants to increase their overall technical/economical effectiveness. Finally, with a real project case, it is shown the effectiveness and the expected promising effects of the described solution.