Predicting Wind Strength Up To 4 Days In Advance  

TreeHugger has a post on improving our ability to predict wind strength, which will be very useful for grid operators as the proportion of wind power feeding the grid increases - New Software Allows Wind Farms to Predict Output Up to Four Days in Advance (via Alt Energy Stocks).

A new piece of software developed in Germany is being used to predict electrical output from existing wind farms. By providing a level of predictability, the Previento system allows German grid operators to determine how much additional fossil fuel energy will be needed to compensate for lulls in wind energy output.

Dr Matthias Lange of Energy & Meteo systems, the software’s developer, is quoted in Renewable Energy World:

"The German electricity industry has to able to plan today how much electricity it will need tomorrow as well as how that electricity will be produced. That is what our system helps them to do. Accurate predictions about wind power allow grid operators to save millions of euros through efficient scheduling."

Predictions Up to Four Days in Advance Possible

Previento can provide reliable predictions up to four days in advance and with a time resolution of up to 15 minutes for any location in Germany and Europe, according to Energy & Meteo. It does this by drawing on a variety of weather models, from multiple sources and adds in variables such as the local terrain of the particular wind farms before making a final calculation. Additionally, the software calculates a margin of error for each situation.

Other Utilities Have to Work Around Wind Output

Germany currently generates 7.2% of its electricity through wind power, which is a large enough amount that other utilities have to adjust themselves around the exact amount of power wind farms are producing.

Records Are Set Through Definitions

Recently the American Wind Energy Association tried claiming that, even though Germany has a higher installed wind capacity than the United States (22.2 GW in Germany versus 19.6 GW in the US), the US actually generates more power from wind than does Germany. That may be splitting hairs a bit, but nonetheless wind energy still generates only about 1% of total electric supply in the US. Though neither is up to the percentage mark set by Spain.