On July 9-10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) hosted a workshop about solar forecasting to share and discuss the latest solar forecasting technologies, modeling, and resources that help utilities and grid operators better forecast when, where, and how much solar power will be produced at U.S. solar energy plants.
The workshop featured presentations, panels, and discussions. Presentation slides and the workshop agenda are all included below.
Presentation Slides
Agenda
July 10, 2024 | See Day 1 Presentation Slides
Time [ET] | Session |
|---|---|
| 10-10:10 a.m. | Opening Remarks |
| 10:20-10:50 a.m. | Keynote Gary Geernaert, Director, Office of Biological and Environmental Research / |
| 10:50-11:20 a.m. | Climate Modeling and grid planning Moderated by Yi Yang, Technology Manager, SETO ‘Observation-Constrained GEOS Products from NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office’ ‘Creating High-Resolution Climate Data for Solar Energy Applications’ |
| 11:20 a.m.-12:05 p.m. | Group Discussion |
| 12:05-1:05 p.m. | Lunch |
| 1:05-2:05 p.m. | Current state-of-the-art of solar forecasting technologies: from physics-based model to AI/ML-based models Moderated by Larkin Sayer, Fellow, SETO ‘Day-Ahead Solar forecasting – Current Status and Challenges’ ‘Prediction of Solar Variability by Cloud Type and Cloud Cover at ARM and SURFRAD Sites’ ‘The AI revolution in weather forecasting’ ‘Value of Physically Based Models’ |
| 2:05-2:50 p.m. | Group Discussion |
| 2:50-3:05 p.m. | Break |
| 3:05-3:50 p.m. | Resource and load forecasting for multiple technologies Moderated by Dexter Newton, Technology Manager, SETO ‘Improving Wind and Solar Forecasts Simultaneously’ ‘Load Forecasting Trends and Challenges’ ‘Forecasting for Hydropower’ |
| 3:50-4:35 p.m. | Group Discussion |
July 11, 2024 | See Day 2 Presentation Slides
Time [ET] | Session |
|---|---|
| 9-9:10 a.m. | Opening Remarks Guohui Yuan, Program Manager, Systems Integration, SETO |
| 9:10-9:40 a.m. | Keynote Amber Motley, Director, Short Term Forecasting at California ISO |
| 9:40-10:40 a.m. | ISO Panel Moderated by Bishnu Bhattarai, Technology Manager, SETO 'BTMPV Forecasting Overview' 'Solar Forecasting in Operations at ERCOT' 'Solar forecasting – progresses, challenges and needs from MISO perspective' 'NYISO Solar Forecasting' |
| 10:40-10:55 a.m. | Break |
| 10:55-11:15 a.m. | Solar Forecasting Prize winners Moderated by Dexter Newton, Technology Manager, SETO Geoff Galgon, Nimbus AI Zhimin Xi, Reliable Autonomy LLC Jeff Xu, Leaptran, Inc. Sara Eftekharnejad, Syracuse University |
| 11:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. | Solar forecasting to improve grid operation Moderated by John Seuss, Technology Manager, SETO ‘Managing risk in power system operations’ ‘Update on Southern Company Research’ ‘NYSolarCast: Utility-Scale and Distributed Solar Power Forecasting in New York State’ ‘Distributed Energy Resource Forecasting’ |
| 12:15-12:45 p.m. | Group Discussion |
| 12:45-12:55 p.m. | Closing Remarks |