Portuguese technology can already predict the sun and gain from it – Express

The production of electricity from renewable sources is inherently unstable. ‘Blink’ is the right word, and also the one that most concerns the technical REN -. National Energy Networks, responsible for the stability of the electrical system and the security of supply

The wind does not always blows with the same intensity and the sun shines more on some days than others. Just there are clouds and everything is changed. In the case of hydroelectricity the picture is more stable, … provided there is water stored in reservoirs.

If, for rain and wind, has long since you can do forecasts, the same can not be said as the sun. Or rather, you could not, until recently, predict the behavior of the intensity of sunlight but, since February, everything changed.

Preventing fluctuating renewable network Electric

Portuguese and Chinese Researchers have been working since 2013, in a research center in Sacavém, a solution that predicts up to seven days the behavior of sunlight and thereby , manage more effectively the typical fluctuation of entry into the network of the contribution photovoltaic plants

A tool that Nuno Souza e Silva, managing director of the research center R &. D Nester, considers “unique” and that, over time, can even be exported to other countries.

For now, according to the same charge, only REN and its Chinese shareholder State Grid will benefit from the technology that provides the behavior of sunlight. Moreover, the research center that manages, which employs 15 to 20 people, five of them Chinese, was created following the privatization of REN, where the State Grid took 25% of the capital of the Portuguese company.

Souza e Silva explains that in Portugal REN already monitors with the new tool developed in central Sacavém research, 110 megawatts of photovoltaic plants, ie 30% of the PV capacity installed in Portuguese territory. But soon the use of that tool will be extended to all photovoltaic parks in Portugal. And Spain can come next, because, according to the head of the R &. D Nester, “is there more photovoltaic parks in Portugal and they do not have the technology we have”

Weather sunlight for seven days, tuned to 15 in 15 minutes

In addition to the predictability of sunlight at a distance of seven days, technology REN allows fine-tune the estimated 15 to 15 minutes, based on the history of each of the solar power plants

Great advantages of this technology developed in Sacavém:. reducing the risk of production of buoyancy renewable energy, in this case from the sun; cost reduction for the very REN, it is possible to have lower energy reserves in the network, than you must have by now, to respond to input flashes in own system of renewables.

Consequently, stresses Souza e Silva,” with this we will be able to accommodate more renewable energy in the network in the future. ” A scenario that, with the increase in electrical interconnections between the Iberian Peninsula and the rest of Europe, you can still make more sense as it is possible that some countries of central and northern will produce clean electricity to Portugal to comply with the goals to which they are required the Europe Agreements.

In other words, with more renewable generation in Portugal, REN, which manages the power grid, will gain in efficiency with increasing predictability of not only wind power, but now also photovoltaic.