Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions
Abstract By 2050, the U.S. plans to increase solar energy from 3% to 45% of the nation’s electricity generation. Quantifying wildfire smoke’s impact on solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is essential to meet this goal, especially given previous studies documenting sizable PV output losses due to smo...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54163-8 |
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| _version_ | 1841559247181053952 |
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| author | Kimberley A. Corwin Jesse Burkhardt Chelsea A. Corr Paul W. Stackhouse Amit Munshi Emily V. Fischer |
| author_facet | Kimberley A. Corwin Jesse Burkhardt Chelsea A. Corr Paul W. Stackhouse Amit Munshi Emily V. Fischer |
| author_sort | Kimberley A. Corwin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract By 2050, the U.S. plans to increase solar energy from 3% to 45% of the nation’s electricity generation. Quantifying wildfire smoke’s impact on solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is essential to meet this goal, especially given previous studies documenting sizable PV output losses due to smoke. We quantify smoke-driven changes in baseline solar resource availability [i.e., amount of direct normal (DNI) and global horizontal (GHI) irradiance] at different spatial and temporal scales using radiative transfer model output and satellite-based smoke, aerosol, and cloud observations. We show that irradiance decreases as smoke frequency increases at the state, regional, and national scale. DNI is more sensitive to smoke with sizable losses persisting downwind of fires. Large reductions in GHI–the main PV resource–are possible close to fires, but mean GHI declines minimally (<5%) due to transported smoke. PV resources remain relatively stable across most of CONUS even in extreme fire seasons. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-df0951207316430587f1a8201f5bad96 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-df0951207316430587f1a8201f5bad962025-01-05T12:39:59ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-01-0116111510.1038/s41467-024-54163-8Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditionsKimberley A. Corwin0Jesse Burkhardt1Chelsea A. Corr2Paul W. Stackhouse3Amit Munshi4Emily V. Fischer5Department of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State UniversityDepartment of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Colorado State UniversityDepartment of Biology/Chemistry, Springfield CollegeNASA Langley Research CenterDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado State UniversityDepartment of Atmospheric Science, Colorado State UniversityAbstract By 2050, the U.S. plans to increase solar energy from 3% to 45% of the nation’s electricity generation. Quantifying wildfire smoke’s impact on solar photovoltaic (PV) generation is essential to meet this goal, especially given previous studies documenting sizable PV output losses due to smoke. We quantify smoke-driven changes in baseline solar resource availability [i.e., amount of direct normal (DNI) and global horizontal (GHI) irradiance] at different spatial and temporal scales using radiative transfer model output and satellite-based smoke, aerosol, and cloud observations. We show that irradiance decreases as smoke frequency increases at the state, regional, and national scale. DNI is more sensitive to smoke with sizable losses persisting downwind of fires. Large reductions in GHI–the main PV resource–are possible close to fires, but mean GHI declines minimally (<5%) due to transported smoke. PV resources remain relatively stable across most of CONUS even in extreme fire seasons.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54163-8 |
| spellingShingle | Kimberley A. Corwin Jesse Burkhardt Chelsea A. Corr Paul W. Stackhouse Amit Munshi Emily V. Fischer Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions Nature Communications |
| title | Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions |
| title_full | Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions |
| title_fullStr | Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions |
| title_short | Solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions |
| title_sort | solar energy resource availability under extreme and historical wildfire smoke conditions |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-54163-8 |
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