Weather, Climate, and Renewable Energy
More than 80% of the global energy supply comes from fossil fuels. Suffice it to say, this isn’t a viable long-term strategy due to massive pollution and the resulting climate change. However, energy demand is constantly growing and is projected to double by 2050.
Hundreds of governments worldwide have turned to renewables as a better alternative to fossils, targeting net-zero emissions and a global temperature no more than 1.5 degrees higher than in pre-industrial times. Of course, green energy comes with its own set of challenges — however, none of them pose nearly as many risks as our old ways. Nevertheless, these challenges must be discussed and eventually overcome if we’re serious about a cleaner future.
Climate change presents energy production and delivery difficulties, including increasingly severe extreme weather events, higher temperatures, and altering precipitation patterns. Wind, solar, and hydropower energy are susceptible to fluctuating weather patterns. They rely on climate-related factors such as sunlight, wind speed, and water availability. This has implications for the reliability and performance of the energy system.
Solar Power
Solar power is incredibly needy when it comes to weather: the panels require clear skies and as much sunlight as possible to live up to their full potential. On top of that, extreme weather events present increasing challenges for generating and storing solar energy.
Powerful storms are capable of causing significant damage to solar panels and disrupting the supply of renewable energy. Hails can be especially damaging, and it doesn’t help that replacing solar panels costs a fortune. (We’re talking tens of thousands of dollars!)
But a massive hail is not the only extreme weather event that can damage solar panels and infrastructure. Fires, lightning, fierce winds, sand and dust storms, and heat waves can reduce power output down to naught. If solar panels reach temperatures exceeding 65 °C (149 °F), they start losing efficiency. Even a cloudy day can cause problems with solar power generation. On a partly cloudy day, production can drop by a quarter.
The rising global temperature could increase operational costs and decrease equipment efficiency. Moreover, solar power is vulnerable to water supply and changes in rainfall caused by heat waves or droughts. Solar plants are typically located in dry areas; they use wet cooling systems, which need lots of water to run efficiently.
What’s the takeaway here? The solar power supply can be unreliable, and the challenges associated with solar panels are tied to integral parts of their design. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a solution: the key is to find a way to store solar energy for later use. The challenge is to balance the solar supply with consumer demand for energy correctly.
Wind Power
Let’s move on to wind power, the fastest-growing green energy source. There are many reasons for its success, but affordability is the most important one. Additionally, wind turbines don’t require nearly as many preconditions as solar panels, contributing to their spread.
You might think that strong winds would benefit wind power production, but this isn’t entirely true. Every wind turbine has an anemometer that measures wind speed. When this device registers wind speeds higher than a certain cut-out threshold, it triggers the wind turbine to shut off automatically to prevent overcharging.
Extreme wind speeds, especially when there are direction changes and strong gusts, drastically increase turbine load, threaten the structural integrity of towers and blades, cause damage to turbine components, and reduce output. At the same time, low winds also mean wind turbines aren’t able to operate correctly.
On the flip side, storms can positively affect the generation of wind power, as electricity production rises sharply before turbines hit the cut-off and shut off. At the same time, hurricanes and storm surges can damage offshore wind farms and affect the lifespan of turbines. Accessing and maintaining wind turbines is also a problem during storms.
Gradual changes in precipitation, temperature and near-surface humidity can lead to increased icing on turbine blades. Dust deposits and extremely dry air have similar effects. Maintaining and repairing wind farms in permafrost regions is also tricky.
Hydropower
Hydropower is relatively cheap to operate, making it an attractive energy source. Nevertheless, hydropower generation worldwide can be unstable: it varies year on year due to shifts in weather patterns and other conditions around the site.
Fluctuations in weather patterns can affect the hydrologic cycle — the movement of water over the earth that drives hydropower. Energy production is dependent on precipitation that ends up in rivers and reservoirs. This renewable energy source is at the mercy of extreme weather events, such as droughts and floods, which are currently on the rise.
Severe droughts cause electricity generation levels to drop, while heavy flooding can overwhelm and damage the system’s transformers and other electrical equipment. The decreasing volume and increasing temperatures of rivers and lakes caused by changing precipitation and warming pose problems in cooling efficiency and water availability.
Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy makes it ever-so-crucial for energy producers to get accurate information about historical, current, and future weather. Stay ahead of the weather with Meteum’s deep historical data, precise nowcasting and forecasting, in-depth metrics, and a flexible API for easy operational decision-making.
Protect valuable assets such as panels and turbines from weather-related risks and quickly restore the damage. Ensure safe working conditions for employees during maintenance and repair procedures. Maximize operational efficiency to adjust to weather-driven supply and demand and improve hydro, solar, and wind output. Optimize the use of resources to plan for dips or spikes in production and increase consistent energy production.
Check out meteum.io for more information on minimizing green energy operational costs, and claim your free API key to get started.
