The prevalence of renewable energy sources is growing rapidly, surpassing 40% of global energy production in 2024. Integration, resource site selection, and planning require an understanding of its impact on local power network infrastructure.

Solar and wind energy are typically considered individually, but Jones et al. evaluated the impacts of the two on power grids together, providing a deeper understanding of their interplay during both concurrent and non-concurrent operations.

The two are often thought to complement each other; photovoltaics, of course, only work during the day, and wind is most active at night. But by studying the correlations and seasonal variations between wind and solar energy outputs around the United States, the researchers found it’s common for the two to occur concurrently, especially in the spring and summer. This can have potentially detrimental impacts on the power grid, causing high voltages and thermal stress.

“Even when there is significant nighttime wind, there is a lot during the day, thus causing excess generation on the sample distribution grid,” said author Birk Jones.

The work highlights the importance of studying solar and wind energy simultaneously and can inform operators and policymakers on ways to manage resources and generator output. The applications are primarily limited to rural locations, where there is adequate space for tall wind turbines, but the researchers plan to extend their studies to include other types of renewable energy sources and more diverse geographical regions.

“This information provides planners with the ability to understand when the grid will be more stressed because of the two resources, or where they can work together to provide more reliable renewable energy throughout the entire day,” said Jones.

Source: “Hosting capacity considerations for the combination of wind & solar on distribution electric power systems subject to different levels of coincident operations,” by C. Birk Jones, Thad Haines, and Rachid Darbali-Zamora, Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy (2025). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0264545 .