ML4WX

Applications & impacts

Advances in solar forecasting: Computer vision with deep learning

Quentin Paletta, Guillermo Terrén-Serrano, Yuhao Nie, Binghui Li, Jacob Bieker, Wenqi Zhang, Laurent Dubus, Soumyabrata Dev, Cong Feng

Advances in Applied Energy · · University of Cambridge (Aardvark), Stanford University

PaperPDF

In one sentence. Review of deep learning solar forecasting from sky cameras, satellites and weather stations that tracks cloud displacement, outlining gaps relative to NWP.

Abstract

Renewable energy forecasting is crucial for integrating variable energy sources into the grid. It allows power systems to address the intermittency of the energy supply at different spatiotemporal scales. To anticipate the future impact of cloud displacements on the energy generated by solar facilities, conventional modeling methods rely on numerical weather prediction or physical models, which have difficulties in assimilating cloud information and learning systematic biases. Augmenting computer vision with machine learning overcomes some of these limitations by fusing real-time cloud cover observations with surface measurements acquired from multiple sources. This Review summarizes recent progress in solar forecasting from multisensor Earth observations with a focus on deep learning, which provides the necessary theoretical framework to develop architectures capable of extracting relevant information from data generated by ground-level sky cameras, satellites, weather stations, and sensor networks. Overall, machine learning has the potential to significantly improve the accuracy and robustness of solar energy meteorology; however, more research is necessary to realize this potential and address its limitations.

Labels

Topic
Applications & impacts, Nowcasting
Type
Review, survey or tutorial
Method
CNN / U-Net
Time scale
0–6 h, 6 h–3 days
Domain
Local / station
Data
Satellite, Station / in-situ
Status
Research
Identifiers
DOI:10.1016/j.adapen.2023.100150 OpenAlex:W4385638612
Added
2026-10-22

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