Wind speeds can vary greatly from minute to minute, and cloud cover/movement can cause the output of solar photovoltaic (PC) energy sources to vary. As a result, solar and wind power naturally and continuously fluctuates. The CSIR has embarked on research focusing on smoothing out the inherent volatility and fluctuations from wind and PV energy resources in South Africa. A key finding has been that when wind and PV plants are spatially distributed, it can result in a smoothing effect on the power output and also be made predictable.
Reference:
Mushwana, C. et al. 2015. Smoothing out the volatility of South Africa's wind and solar photovoltaic energy resources. ScienceScope, vol. 8(2): 28-29
Mushwana, C., Bischof-Niemz, T., Zimmermann, B., Gerlach, A., Bofinger, S., & Otto, A. (2015). Smoothing out the volatility of South Africa's wind and solar photovoltaic energy resources. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/9853
Mushwana, Crescent, T Bischof-Niemz, B Zimmermann, A-K Gerlach, S Bofinger, and A Otto "Smoothing out the volatility of South Africa's wind and solar photovoltaic energy resources." (2015) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/9853
Mushwana C, Bischof-Niemz T, Zimmermann B, Gerlach A, Bofinger S, Otto A. Smoothing out the volatility of South Africa's wind and solar photovoltaic energy resources. 2015; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/9853.
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