Optimal use of renewable energy sources – „Energy Meteorology Knowledge Network” launched
What are optimal locations for future solar and wind energy converters? Can wind strength be predicted? Where can the highest levels of solar insolation be expected in the next few days and how high will they be? These and similar questions are addressed in the young science of „energy meteorology.”
It focuses on the influence of weather and climate on energy generation from renewable energy sources. Energy meteorology can thus provide an important basis for a future sustainable and secure energy supply. Significant preliminary work was initiated by Dr. Detlev Heinemann (Oldenburg University), spokesman for the Energy Meteorology Virtual Institute (vIEM), and by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with its Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, and German Remote Sensing Data Center (DFD). Reliable prediction of power output from solar and wind energy systems requires analysis of huge amounts of data. This leads to a determination of the optimal locations for energy converters. In addition, computer models for weather predictions have to be run.
Scientists from a variety of fields are working together in this interdisciplinary project to develop and apply complex models. The necessary data are being collected from orbiting satellites, innumerable ground measurement stations, and data archives. The variety and amount of data pose immense challenges for the scientists. The data processing demands powerful computers, very large data storage capacity, rapid networks for data transfer, and a uniform, hierarchic data structure.
For this reason, three DLR institutes, the information technology institute OFFIS, Oldenburg University, and the company meteocontrol GmbH have devised an information technology concept to achieve improved and more flexible collaboration. This concept convinced the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) to award a project contract which is part of the nationwide eScience/D-Grid Initiative to the consortium led by Prof. WilhelmHasselbring (OFFIS). The total project has a EUR 2 million subsidy.
Within the next three years, the scientists will devise technologies and procedures for calculating energy prognoses more rapidly and flexibly. It is the project goal to provide new tools for energy meteorologists so that they can quickly integrate new types of measurement data (such as the aerosol content of the atmosphere) into their assessments.