Evaluation of complementarity of wind and solar energy resources over Mexico using an image processing approach

This paper presents a study of the complementarity of wind and solar resources over Mexico for electricity generation. A dataset was generated using high-resolution wind and solar resource maps provided by the SIGER project to assess the possibility of a combined used of these renewable energy sources. Using image processing techniques, the values of average monthly wind speed and solar irradiation were obtained, and then the average energy production was calculated. In order to obtain new maps that show the degree of correlation between the wind and solar resources the Pearson correlation coefficient was applied. The obtained results show a good degree of complementarity between both energy sources, in specific places of the country in the different seasons of the year. The obtained maps can be useful in projects related to the installation of hybrid renewable energy generation systems that have wind turbines and photovoltaic cells.