  It is expected, and regionally observed, that energy demand will soon be
covered by a widespread deployment of renewable energy sources. However, the
weather and climate driven energy sources are characterized by a significant
spatial and temporal variability. One of the commonly mentioned solutions to
overcome the mismatch between demand and supply provided by renewable
generation is a hybridization of two or more energy sources in a single power
station (like wind-solar, solar-hydro or solar-wind-hydro). The operation of
hybrid energy sources is based on the complementary nature of renewable
sources. Considering the growing importance of such systems and increasing
number of research activities in this area this paper presents a comprehensive
review of studies which investigated, analyzed, quantified and utilized the
effect of temporal, spatial and spatio-temporal complementarity between
renewable energy sources. The review starts with a brief overview of available
research papers, formulates detailed definition of major concepts, summarizes
current research directions and ends with prospective future research
activities. The review provides a chronological and spatial information with
regard to the studies on the complementarity concept.
