Impactos del cambio climático en la generación de energía renovable y en la demanda de electricidad

Abstract

Climate change is atributed, among other factors, to greenhouse gas emissions produced by the energy sector. At the same time, climate change is expected to affect this sector by changing the availability of resources, altering its enabling conditions and transforming demand patterns. This thesis addresses climate change impacts on renewable generation and electricity demand by providing an overview of the most relevant transformations projected in literature and by developing methodologies and quantitative analysis to ascertain the specific infuence in three case-studies. The first chapter summarizes and analyzes the most relevant studies that project quantitative changes on renewable generation due to climate change. The second and third chapters focus on estimating climate change impacts in hydropower and wind generation in specific plants. Both provide physical and economic projections of expected changes, along with conclusions for the development of energy policies. The last chapter delves into how climate change may affect electricity demand due to projected increases in temperature in one region. The thesis ends with some concluding remarks and some insights for future research.