The most favourable areas for electricity production from wind power in EU countries are dominated by winter winds. For this reason, as is illustrated in Fig. 4, the major contribution of wind generation occurs during this period.

The achievable production — Graph E) — Fig. 5 varies from month to month significantly more than the electricity demand — Graph G). The trade wind regions of northern Africa (southern Morocco and Mauritania, Graph c) and d))exhibit similarly strong seasonal variations, but their peak production is during the summer months. By purposefully selecting a combination of certain areas for production, the typical monthly electricity generation may largely be matched to demand. This fact is illustrated in Graph F), in which one-third of the rated capacities are assumed to lie within the EU, with the rest equally divided among the other regions. In this manner, the area of generation and thus the total potential is greatly expanded, simultaneously accompanied by very beneficial smoothing effects.

• 4.3 Temporal Behaviour of the Electricity Produced by Parabolic Trough Power Plants

Due to the parallel configuration of the mirror elements, the trough array may partially block the rays of the sun when it is low on the horizon. For this reason, and because of the low angle of incidence during the winter, the output varies throughout the months of the year in addition to random changes of incident radiation caused by local weather phenomena. This effect is diminished gradually while approaching equatorial latitudes, but it is still distinctly noticeable even at locations in southern Mauritania, where the achievable production in December reaches more than 80% of July production, as indicated in Fig. 7. Solar thermal generation alone is therefore not adequate to track the seasonal variations in European electricity consumption. In combination with European wind power, however, this requirement may be quite easily met.