Feb 22, 2013 - The US National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) said Thursday it would head a three-year project to develop a system of a 36-hour forecast of sun energy for the needs of solar plants.
The research will be focused on developing a prototype system to predict sunlight and resulting energy in 15-minute intervals, thus allowing utilities to adjust their systems according to the amount of available solar energy. The research will be funded mostly with a USD-4.1-million (EUR 3.1m) grant from the US Department of Energy and will combine the efforts of government laboratories, universities, utilities and commercial forecast providers.
The solar forecast project comes after NCAR completed a detailed wind energy forecasting system in partnership with US utility Xcel Energy (NYSE:XEL) that helped Xcel achieve an estimated USD 6 million in savings in one year.
The team will conduct tests using advanced observing instruments, computer models, and mathematical and artificial intelligence techniques, during different seasons in a number of US locations, including the Northeast, Florida, Colorado or New Mexico, and California. The objective is to make sure that the system can operate in different types of weather patterns during the course of the year.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.757)
Choose your newsletter by Renewables Now. Join for free!