Code from: The role of offshore wind and solar PV resources in global low-carbon transition
Data files
Abstract
With challenges such as land availability and regulatory constraints, offshore renewable energy sector is poised to play a pivotal role in the transition to a low-carbon future. Among offshore technologies, wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) have emerged as the most promising solutions. However, a global assessment of offshore resources, particularly solar PV, remains lacking. Hence, we identify suitable areas for offshore wind and solar PV development on the basis of economic feasibility, technical constraints, and environmental considerations and quantify the national potential for electricity production and CO2 reduction contributions. With a conservative assumption of using 1% of suitable areas, offshore wind and solar PV could generate ~6049 and 14,173 terawatt-hours of electricity annually. This would cover nearly 30 % of the expected global electricity demand in 2050. The resulting reductions in carbon dioxide emissions could exceed 9 billion tonnes annually. These findings highlight the critical role offshore renewable energy can play in achieving a low-carbon future.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.z08kprrs8
Overview
This repository contains MATLAB scripts used to calculate and visualize the offshore wind and offshore solar photovoltaic (PV) resource results presented in the manuscript The role of offshore wind and solar PV resources in global low-carbon transition, published in Science Advances.
The scripts are provided to reproduce the data and plots associated with Figures 1, 3, and 4 of the manuscript. They estimate the potential electricity production from offshore wind and offshore solar PV resources, aggregate the results within Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs), and evaluate the complementarity between wind and solar PV generation.
Software requirements
MATLAB is required to view and run the scripts. The authors used MATLAB R2024a (Academic Use version).
Input data sources
The scripts use the following external datasets:
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ERA5 single-level reanalysis data
Source: Copernicus Climate Data Store
URL: https://cds.climate.copernicus.eu/datasets/reanalysis-era5-single-levels?tab=downloadERA5 hourly variables used in the calculations include:
- 100-metre U and V wind components, used for offshore wind power estimation;
- surface solar radiation downwards (SSRD), used for offshore solar PV estimation;
- 10-metre U and V wind components, used in the offshore solar PV calculation;
- 2-metre air temperature, used in the offshore solar PV calculation.
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Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundary data
Source: Marine Regions
URL: https://marineregions.org/eezdetails.php?mrgid=8486&all_territories=1The EEZ data are used to aggregate gridded offshore wind and offshore solar PV electricity production by country or region.
Description of scripts
Fig.1a.m
Calculates the potential annual electricity production per unit area from offshore wind. The calculation is based on hourly 100-metre U and V wind components from the ERA5 dataset and a specified offshore wind turbine configuration.
Fig.1b.m
Calculates the potential annual electricity production per unit area from offshore solar PV. The calculation is based on hourly ERA5 surface solar radiation downwards, 10-metre U and V wind components, and 2-metre air temperature, together with a specified PV module configuration.
Fig._3a.m
Calculates the annual offshore wind electricity production within different EEZs. The calculation uses the gridded offshore wind electricity production derived from Fig.1a.m and the EEZ boundary data from Marine Regions.
Fig._3b.m
Calculates the annual offshore solar PV electricity production within different EEZs. The calculation uses the gridded offshore solar PV electricity production derived from Fig.1b.m and the EEZ boundary data from Marine Regions.
Fig.4a.m
Calculates the Pearson correlation coefficient between hourly offshore wind and offshore solar PV electricity production at each grid cell within EEZs. The hourly wind and solar radiation data are derived from the same ERA5 variables used in the Figure 1 calculations.
Fig.4b.m
Generates a scatter plot showing the potential monthly electricity outputs from offshore wind and offshore solar PV across different countries or regions. The EEZ-level electricity production data are derived from the same gridded resource calculations and EEZ aggregation workflow used for Figure 3.
Workflow summary
The general workflow of the scripts is as follows:
- Use ERA5 hourly meteorological variables to estimate gridded offshore wind and offshore solar PV electricity production (
Fig.1a.mandFig.1b.m). - Combine the gridded electricity production results with EEZ boundary data to calculate country- or region-level offshore wind and offshore solar PV resources (
Fig._3a.mandFig._3b.m). - Use hourly wind and solar PV electricity production to quantify their temporal complementarity through Pearson correlation coefficients (
Fig.4a.m). - Visualize the relationship between offshore wind and offshore solar PV electricity production across countries or regions (
Fig.4b.m).
Notes
- The scripts are intended to reproduce the calculations and figures reported in the associated manuscript.
- Users should download the required ERA5 and EEZ datasets from the sources listed above before running the scripts.
- File names are retained as provided in the original code package.