Effects of sandstorms on hybrid renewable energy sources and load demand in arid desert climates: A case study

Abstract

Globally, renewable energy sources (RESs) are being used more frequently, including in arid desert regions such as Kuwait. This small geographical area is planning to expand its RES share to reach 15 % of the national electricity demand by 2030. This study investigates the effects of two large sandstorms on different RESs employed in Kuwait: (1) photovoltaic (PV) power plants, (2) concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, and (3) wind turbines (WTs). Sandstorms exhibit crucial weather-related characteristics as the solar irradiance decreases significantly during storms whereas the wind speed increases. These two weather parameters are the fuel used in RESs. Therefore, the power produced by the PV and CSP plants decreases substantially, whereas the power produced by the WT increases to its rated value for several hours. This causes a decrease in the total energy generated by the PV and CSP plants, in contrast to the WT plants, which always overperform against their typical daily average values. By comparing the daily energy average of May 2021 with no major sandstorms present, the energy generated by the PV is 83.3 % (Storm 1) and 49.1 % (Storm 2), whereas the energy generated by the CSP is 100.4 % (Storm 1) and 18.2 % (Storm 2). Conversely, the energy generated by the WTs is 198.6 % (Storm 1) and 237.6 % (Storm 2). This study illustrates one of the benefits of employing hybrid RESs. Different hybrid configurations are investigated with the PV-WT configuration showing great potential with near-constant produced power and overperformance in the total energy generated.