What is solar nowcasting?
Nowcasting is the science of predicting the weather from the present moment up to a few hours ahead. There are different types of nowcasting models. Some focus on predicting temperature, while others focus on precipitation. Solar nowcasting is the science of predicting the amount of solar irradiation we can expect, up to a few hours ahead.
What is SolarNowcasting.com?
SolarNowcasting.com delivers real-time forecasts of irradiance and photovoltaic power. We combine near-real-time satellite observations with purpose-built predictive modelling to detect changes in cloud fields before they impact production. Forecasts refresh several times per hour and are available via API for direct use in market operations, grid control, and plant automation.
Why it matters
Short-term ramps in PV output drive imbalance costs, CO₂ intensity and operational risk. Foresight over the next 0–120 minutes allows operators and traders to prepare rather than react: scheduling reserves, adjusting setpoints, and positioning portfolios ahead of rapid changes.
Approach
The system ingests continuously updated atmospheric observations, extracts the cloud dynamics that matter for surface irradiance, and turns them into short-term forecasts tuned for low latency and high availability. The focus is operational relevance: stable delivery, clear interfaces, and outputs that align with market and grid time steps. Specific model architectures, training procedures and internal datasets are proprietary.
Performance
In variable cloud conditions the service consistently outperforms simple baselines such as persistence and climatology. Skill remains high across scattered, broken and uniform cloud regimes, which translates into better ramp-rate handling and fewer costly surprises in dispatch and trading.
Applications
Transmission system operators use nowcasts for congestion management and reserve planning. PV plant operators apply them to minimize curtailment and optimize inverter control. Energy traders rely on the short-horizon signal to improve intra-day decisions.
Conclusion
By uniting near-real-time satellite observation with forecasting models designed for the operational time scale, SolarNowcasting provides actionable visibility into the next hours of solar production—without exposing proprietary methods or data.
Contact
For pilot projects, operational deployment or collaboration: [email protected]