Weather Powering Our Future: A Simple, Web-Based Tool for Broadcast Meteorologists to Support Discussion on the Local Potential of Wind and Solar Energy

The growth of renewable energy in the U.S. electric generation portfolio is accelerating, as total generation from wind has increased 43% from 2012 to 2017 and solar generation has increased 23% from May 2017 to May 2018. Since weather will increasingly drive a portion of domestic electricity needs, broadcast meteorologists are in a unique position to inform their audience about how the weather will affect power generation.

Climate Central has developed a wind and solar forecasting tool for broadcast meteorologists to incorporate energy generation and forecast information into their weather segments. Using standard numerical data from the NOAA Global Forecast System, Climate Central and its partners have developed output indicating how much energy can potentially be generated in the coming 24 and 48 hours from solar and wind installations. The tool aggregates the output across designated TV market areas and also correlates that output into identifiable metrics for the public, such as a solar electricity cost savings for a typical U.S. household and wind energy generation across a specific geographical area. To further help the public understand the quantitative information, we have developed wind and solar power indices, patterned after the popular UV Index, for meteorologists to convey how suitable the weather conditions are for solar and wind electricity generation. This information will be distributed through the Climate Matters network of more than 500 TV meteorologists.

By incorporating wind and solar energy information into a regular weather forecast segment, the concept of renewable energy can become more tangible for the viewing audience and possibly a normal part of the public discourse.