Research Article

Correlation of wind and solar power in high-latitude arctic areas in Northern Norway and Svalbard

Department of Physics and Technology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Mailbox 6050, Langnes, 9037 Tromsø, Norway

^⁎ e-mail: kine.solbakken@uit.no

Abstract

This paper assesses the possibilities for combining wind and solar power in a household-scale hybrid renewable energy system in arctic high-latitude areas in the North of Norway. By combining two complementary renewable energy sources, the efficiency and reliability of the power output can be improved compared to a system utilizing wind or solar power independently. This paper assesses the correlation between wind and solar power on different timescales in four different locations in Northern Norway and Svalbard. For all locations complementary characteristics of wind and solar power are found, however, the strength of the correlation is highly variable for each location and for the different timescales. The best correlation for all places is found on a monthly timescale. HOMER is used to run simulations on hybrid renewable energy systems (HRES) for each location. For three of the four locations the HRES produces more power than what is consumed in the household.