Complementarity of energy resources for the electrical generation: a review

Given the needs to increase the rates of electricity coverage, to generate measures to adapt the Climate Change and to diversify the Matrix Energy in the countries, there have been developed a lot of studies to establish the complementarity of energy resources. In that sense, this document presents a literature review of some regions worldwide, to highlight the research initiatives around the study of energy complementarity. This review includes studies about establishing the complementarity of solar, wind and water resources, and includes demand, electricity prices, etc. Among the results found, it is noted that although several studies conducted around the world have shown that most of the renewable energy production systems has a variable and unpredictable nature, make use of more than one type of renewable energy improves the performance of those systems, it decreases the generation fluctuations and increases the system reliability. Also, it is found that the correlation factor is the most used method for the evaluation of energy complementarity. Other methods include simulations, model application, optimization algorithms, etc. In the same way, the input information for the realization of these studies comes from the registries of the electrical power systems of the countries, from the application of meteorological prediction models, from historical climatological data coming from satellites or from measurements of meteorological stations, among others. There are opportunities observed in Colombia to generate knowledge about complementarity between energy resources