PVSyst Meteo Data Import with Solcast
Your team's investment of time and energy into your solar project are by no means the 'default' level of effort. You've worked hard to make your solar farm a reality. So why would you choose the 'default' option when it comes to your weather/meteo data file?
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Meteonorm dataset limitations
The key limitations of Meteonorm's representativeness lie within the use of 1) interpolated and 2) synthetic data. Interpolations rely heavily on surface observation data, which are not equally distributed. Synthetic estimates are useful when high quality direct observational data does not exist. However, given the presence of a global fleet of high resolution weather satellites that directly image cloud cover - this is not the case.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Browsable global solar radiation maps are live
Browse animated solar radiation maps in your area of interest - updated daily! Includes a history, broken down by date with global coverage. It's our new solar radiation map archive and it's totally rad.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Malaysian solar power forecasting requirements
"We enjoy a considerable amount of hot and sunny weather in Malaysia but we also have very low cloud cover. The other challenge is of course electricity generated must be used immediately." -TNB Chairman Tan Sri Leo Moggie-
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
High-resolution elevation grid for historical solar data
We're committed to maintaining an industry-leading solar resource dataset, with a continuous company focus on improving the accuracy of our data. In this post, we explore the new 150m2 elevation grid.
Author: Ben King
Solar power forecasting in Vietnam made easy
"Despite the fact that solar power is a valuable capacity addition to the power system which is facing difficulties in power supplies, a large number of solar power plants coming into operation in a short period have been causing many challenges to the operation of power system." - EVN NLDC.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar power forecasting in Ukraine
Solar power forecasting is becoming essential for successful grid integration in Ukraine. Accurate forecasts can help with day-ahead bidding of power, by allowing larger bids and/or reducing imbalance or accuracy penalties.
Author: James Luffman
Three Time-saving Tips for Solar Forecast Validation
Don't be a forecast validation super-hero. Just get the job done. Three time and sanity saving tips from our CTO.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Let Solcast take the pain out of PV generation forecasting at your solar farm asset
Owners and operators of solar farms already have one too many things to think about. Compliance items stack up by the thousands very quickly. Utilities providing their network connections can impose new requirements without warning. Manufacturers of key components can go bankrupt and leave you without an important spare part! Don't let setting up solar forecasting technology at your asset be another pain-point. Use the Solcast API Toolkit!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Lowering uncertainty is fundamental to managing solar investment risk
The principal input to the rate of return calculation for a solar farm asset is the expected revenue generation from the solar farm. This highlights the importance of high quality solar irradiance data: revenue generation is primarily influenced by the availability of solar irradiance at that location over time.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Price Flexibility at the Gym and Your Next Solar Project
What do going to the gym and purchasing historical solar radiation data online have in common? Price (in)flexibility!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
How to download and test Solcast TMY and timeseries data in just minutes for FREE
Now that you have your FREE Solcast data credits - we suggest you download your own sample TMY or historical time-series file. This only takes a matter of minutes to achieve through the Solcast API Toolkit, and in this post, we're going to show you how!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar forecasting for solar cars
Learn about how the Eclipse X solar car team uses solar forecasting in its race strategy!
Author: Félix-Antoine Robert
A Review of the Historical and TMY data now on offer through the API Toolkit
In this post, Solcast dives into its historical and TMY data offering. This includes a brief review of methods plus the basics on historical time-series data, typical meteorological year data and monthly averages data.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solcast partnership with BloomSky deploying sky-imagers
Solcast has partnered with BloomSky on our Super Rapid Update solar power forecasting products. Get a sky-imager installed on your solar farm site with affordable and fast installation.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Historical and TMY data in the API Toolkit: the next step in the Solcast mission
Solcast took a close look at the way solar farm financiers, developers and due diligence firms were accessing the historical and TMY solar data services they needed. Our conclusion? The whole process was overdue for overhaul!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solcast becomes the commercial solar and wind forecasting provider to EVN Vietnam
We are delighted to announce that EVN Vietnam has recently signed up as a Solcast customer for both our solar power forecasting and wind energy forecasting solutions
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Announcing a global partnership with Meteocontrol
Starting this month, Solcast and Meteocontrol have begun a global partnership, including data for nearly 50,000 locations around the world. That's the power of the Solcast API!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Asia Utility Week - Solar Irradiance Data Nowcasting Technology
Solcast recently presented two high profile talks at the Asia Utility Week event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This included a 5-minute 'pitch', which you can watch in the included material.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Pricing for our global solar API announced! Live and forecast irradiance and PV power data by location
Announcing an introductory pricing model for the World Solar Radiation and World PV Power API data products that is simple, flexible, and suitable for pay-as-you-go applications.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Free historical solar irradiance data credit applied to all Solcast API accounts
We've just launched our best promotional offer yet, and topped up your API account with $250 of historical data credits
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
How Solcast creates solar irradiance data from satellite imagery
This article introduces the basics on how Solcast creates its solar irradiance data including how it uses satellite images and solar radiation models.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Introducing Super-Rapid Update Forecasting for Solar Farms
How Solcast is using sky cameras and live SCADA information to improve short range solar power forecasting and solar irradiance forecasting
Author: James Luffman
Solar GIS Data for the Solar Powered Future
Solar GIS data includes both a given location (latitude and longitude), plus time-series information (attribute) about the historical, live or forecast solar irradiance and weather at that location.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar forecasting for electricity networks
Through creation of customised Solcast Grid Aggregations for the behind the meter solar installed downstream of a particular zone substation, this distribution network was finally able to correct the apparent (net) demand profiles for the impacts of cloud cover.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Power Forecasting for Energy Markets
Why are solar power forecasting technologies important for energy markets?
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Power Forecasting: what it is and how to do it
Solar power forecasting is at its core a weather forecasting problem. It starts with modeling of the Sun's position with respect to a given location at the Earth's surface, before then modeling the transmittance of solar radiation through the Earth's atmosphere.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Behind the meter solar power forecasting and PV fleet visibility
As soon as penetrations of behind the meter solar PV sites reach 1-2% of total load, forecasting the power output of these PV systems starts to become critical for efficient market and network operation. Without including a behind the meter solar forecast into the overall load forecasting operations, errors in the daily load forecast start to appear. Thankfully, Solcast's Grid Aggregations are easy to set-up, are highly accurate, and can help solve this challenging problem!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
The limitations of numerical weather models for solar irradiance forecasting
A brief look at where the use of numerical weather models falls short for solar irradiance forecasting
Author: James Luffman
API Toolkit Launch Makes Accessing Solar Data Easier Than Ever
Starting in April 2019, all registered Solcast users will arrive into our new API Toolkit on login/registration. There, you'll find a set of live demonstration sites for the data product categories relevant to your experience, and be able to create new sites, access recent, live and forecast data, or download historical data at the site of your choosing.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Self Forecasting for Eight Australian Solar Farms
Eight of Australia’s large-scale solar farms will partner with Solcast to utilise our Super Rapid Update forecasting product for 5-minute ahead solar power forecasting.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
The Importance Of Choosing Modern Short-Term Solar Power Forecasting Solutions In India
India has shown great leadership with its aggressive solar installation targets. With its state distribution companies now due to enforce penalties for inaccurate solar forecasts, it would be quite wise to also show leadership in its implementation of its solar forecasting technologies and network/market operations by choosing modern approaches.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Short-term solar forecasting for utility solar sites: core business or distraction?
Solar farm operators are coming under growing pressure to help maintain network stability by providing accurate generation forecasts. As our CTO Dr. Nick Engerer writes, innovations in short-term forecasting are providing operators with new options for making this task less of a distraction from their core business
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
How Solcast is better suited to solar energy applications than generic weather APIs like DarkSky
Generic weather APIs can be cool and cheap, but there are some fundamental reasons why they don’t work well for solar energy
Author: James Luffman
Free PV system performance estimate
All around the world, solar owners are wondering the same thing: Are my solar panels performing as expected? How can I monitor my PV system's performance? Are my solar panels working? Use our FREE PV system performance estimator to find out!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Irradiance Data - Everywhere You Need It
No source of information is more important for the solar energy industry than solar irradiance data! Our team believes we have the most accurate and most widely available historical, live and forecast solar radiation data available, and we are committed to improving it every week.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
FREE Solar Radiation Historical Data for Researchers
Solcast wants to give you the data you need for your research work for FREE (no cash required!). As a researcher, we'll provide you with access to our Recent and Historical Solar Irradiance Data for non-commercial research use.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Rooftop Solar Forecasting for One or Many Thousands of PV Sites
We offer a simple PV power conversion model, which connects our global, rapid-update cloud nowcasting system with the location and installed capacity of the target PV system. We then generate an estimate of the future power output of each site, which you can instantly access via our API
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
A Solar Irradiance Data API Built with Users in Mind
You can get started with the Solcast API services in less than five minutes. Sign-up for our API and instantly access our global solar forecasting (0-7 days) and estimated actuals dataset (last 7 days). You can also model and forecast utility scale solar farms, create your own grid aggregations and generate forecasts for individual rooftop PV sites trial upon request. Historical data downloads of up to 10 years of data are also available!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Power Forecasting for Utility Scale Farms
Solcast have worked diligently to enable the hard-working folks who are managing, operating and deploying utility scale solar farm sites by delivering on an easy to use and easy to understand forecasting solution via API
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Grid Aggregations for Behind the Meter Solar Forecasting
We use our rapid update cloud and irradiance modelling capability and combine it with information about the spatial distribution and installed capacities of your PV fleet to deliver live, forecast and historical estimates fleet performance.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Global Solar Irradiance Forecasts and Historical Datasets
When we first launched the Solcast API in early 2017, the Solcast team was excited to learn more about the market for historical and forecast solar irradiance and solar power data services. Now, 18 months later, with nearly a thousand users across five continents, we see no better way to launch our company blog than by thanking those users for their commitment to the integration of solar energy, and for being such forward-thinking early adopters of the Solcast API. So - Thank you!
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Publication of a Research Grade Solar PV Power Dataset
A free high quality dataset of PV system power measurements from 1,287 residential installations across Australia
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Forecasting Webinar with Western Power and Australian National University
Next week, our CTO Dr. Nick Engerer will travel to Perth to join our collaborators at Western Power to host a webinar reviewing the rooftop solar related challenges in West Australia
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
High Resolution Solar Forecasting for South Australia Power Networks
Solcast is now committed to delivering the world's highest-resolution solar forecasting technologies to SAPN by the end of this year. Allowing SAPN to finally have the LV network visibility they require for managing & planning for their network operations.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
High Penetration Renewables: The Weather is Our Fuel
It is becoming very important to pay great attention to the *detail* of how the wind & solar resource will change over the course of a given day in order to appropriately manage the balance of supply and demand
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Forecasting Under Complicated Cloud Cover Conditions
There were quite complicated cloud cover conditions over South Australia yesterday, where solar energy penetrations are amongst the highest in the world
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Solar Energy is an Exponential Technology
Solar is an exponential technology. What this means, is that its price performance is falling on an exponential curve and its growth globally is growing upwards in the same fashion.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer
Behind-the-Meter Solar PV Forecasting in West Australia
Behind the meter solar PV power forecasting is an essential tool for accurate supply and demand balance for grid operators. And with rooftop PV installations in Western Australia growing quickly, load forecasting is becoming increasingly difficult for our partner Western Power.
Author: James Luffman
Forecasting Collective Solar PV Ramping Events
When a few hundreds of megawatts of solar generation undergoes a negative ramp event, the energy markets see a sudden jump in the regional demand and local distribution networks will see changes in network loads/voltages in their control rooms. This leads to challenges managing our electricity markets and networks in areas where large amounts of solar are installed.
Author: Dr. Nick Engerer