Machine learning based annual solar energy forecasting for enhanced grid integration of photovoltaic systems

Abstract

The increase in electricity demand is witnessed by many nations due to the rise in population and ongoing developments. To cope with energy requirements, countries are looking towards cleaner alternatives to reduce overreliance on energy generation from conventional resources. The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in real-world applications is acknowledged positively by experts as it enhances the performance and efficiency of the system. This paper reports the advancement of AI in harnessing renewable energy sources (RESs) to their true potential by leveraging their response when the grid is not able to fulfill the power requirement from conventional resources. Moreover, the prediction also remains a challenge with renewables due to their volatile behavior, especially with solar-based energy generation. This issue is also addressed by interfacing AI-enabled applications and the difference between true and predicted values for one year is observed. The result reveals that the true response aligns with the predicted response, which ensures the ability of AI to harness solar energy by consuming minimal time. The proposed approach is also promising from the utility operators’ and end users’ perspectives in designing any large-scale renewable projects for sustainable development and also encourages the utilization of renewables to a larger extent.