The Role of Spatial Databases for Climatic and Solar/Wind Energy Generation Studies: A Bibliometric Review

This paper presents a bibliometric review on spatial databases useful for climatic and solar/wind energy generation studies. Such a type of database has quickly gained importance in various areas of energy and electrical engineering, supporting research and technological advances which require the knowledge of historical climatic data and solar/wind generation capacity. Firstly, works from the literature are analyzed, being statistically evaluated regarding the authors, addressed topics and types of databases. Bradford's Law and Lotka's Law are applied to identify the most relevant journals and authors, allowing to analyze the geographical distribution and distribution per author of scientific production on climatic and renewable generation research. Finally, the most productive authors and countries are identified, being such information used to select the most spread and reliable climatic data and solar/wind databases, whose main features are pointed out, providing a solid foundation for future research and technological developments.