Solar insolation Data for Improved Electrical Use and Generation Forecasting

The amount of energy used to heat and cool buildings is directly correlated to the weather, and is heavily influenced by solar insolence. Further, solar power generation is becoming a greater source of electricity generation in the U.S. These two factors make the need for high quality, local solar insolence data more important than ever. To gain insight from the new wealth of smart grid data available today, the advent of advanced sensing technologies in the smart grid requires a corresponding advancement in the quality and resolution of solar insolence data. In this session, Earth Networks will outline the use of available pyranometer data from NOAA and other sources to calibrate the light sensor on thousands of Earth Networks' weather stations to derive a watts/mē measure of solar insolence for each point on the network. This presentation will provide insight into the challenges and solutions for correlating existing data sets to expand the availability of this much-needed solar insolence data.