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Hour-Ahead Solar Irradiance Forecasting Using Multivariate Gated Recurrent Units

Author

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  • Jessica Wojtkiewicz

    (College of Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

  • Matin Hosseini

    (School of Computing & Informatics, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

  • Raju Gottumukkala

    (College of Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA
    Informatics Research Institute, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

  • Terrence Lynn Chambers

    (College of Engineering, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA 70504, USA)

Abstract

Variation in solar irradiance causes power generation fluctuations in solar power plants. Power grid operators need accurate irradiance forecasts to manage this variability. Many factors affect irradiance, including the time of year, weather and time of day. Cloud cover is one of the most important variables that affects solar power generation, but is also characterized by a high degree of variability and uncertainty. Deep learning methods have the ability to learn long-term dependencies within sequential data. We investigate the application of Gated Recurrent Units (GRU) to forecast solar irradiance and present the results of applying multivariate GRU to forecast hourly solar irradiance in Phoenix, Arizona. We compare and evaluate the performance of GRU against Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) using strictly historical solar irradiance data as well as the addition of exogenous weather variables and cloud cover data. Based on our results, we found that the addition of exogenous weather variables and cloud cover data in both GRU and LSTM significantly improved forecasting accuracy, performing better than univariate and statistical models.

Suggested Citation

  • Jessica Wojtkiewicz & Matin Hosseini & Raju Gottumukkala & Terrence Lynn Chambers, 2019. "Hour-Ahead Solar Irradiance Forecasting Using Multivariate Gated Recurrent Units," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-13, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:21:p:4055-:d:279903
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    2. Majid Hosseini & Satya Katragadda & Jessica Wojtkiewicz & Raju Gottumukkala & Anthony Maida & Terrence Lynn Chambers, 2020. "Direct Normal Irradiance Forecasting Using Multivariate Gated Recurrent Units," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-15, July.
    3. Aleksander Radovan & Viktor Šunde & Danijel Kučak & Željko Ban, 2021. "Solar Irradiance Forecast Based on Cloud Movement Prediction," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-25, June.
    4. Weyll, Arthur Lúcide Cotta & Kitagawa, Yasmin Kaore Lago & Araujo, Mirella Lima Saraiva & Ramos, Diogo Nunes da Silva & Lima, Francisco José Lopes de & Santos, Thalyta Soares dos & Jacondino, William , 2024. "Medium-term forecasting of global horizontal solar radiation in Brazil using machine learning-based methods," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 300(C).
    5. Vu, Ba Hau & Chung, Il-Yop, 2022. "Optimal generation scheduling and operating reserve management for PV generation using RNN-based forecasting models for stand-alone microgrids," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 1137-1154.
    6. Giorgio Guariso & Giuseppe Nunnari & Matteo Sangiorgio, 2020. "Multi-Step Solar Irradiance Forecasting and Domain Adaptation of Deep Neural Networks," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-18, August.
    7. Victor Hugo Wentz & Joylan Nunes Maciel & Jorge Javier Gimenez Ledesma & Oswaldo Hideo Ando Junior, 2022. "Solar Irradiance Forecasting to Short-Term PV Power: Accuracy Comparison of ANN and LSTM Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-23, March.
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    9. Arumugham, Dinesh Rajan & Rajendran, Parvathy, 2021. "Modelling global solar irradiance for any location on earth through regression analysis using high-resolution data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 1114-1123.
    10. Elizabeth Michael, Neethu & Hasan, Shazia & Al-Durra, Ahmed & Mishra, Manohar, 2022. "Short-term solar irradiance forecasting based on a novel Bayesian optimized deep Long Short-Term Memory neural network," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    11. Puah, Boon Keat & Chong, Lee Wai & Wong, Yee Wan & Begam, K.M. & Khan, Nafizah & Juman, Mohammed Ayoub & Rajkumar, Rajprasad Kumar, 2021. "A regression unsupervised incremental learning algorithm for solar irradiance prediction," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 908-925.
    12. Nunes Maciel, Joylan & Javier Gimenez Ledesma, Jorge & Hideo Ando Junior, Oswaldo, 2024. "Hybrid prediction method of solar irradiance applied to short-term photovoltaic energy generation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    13. Ying Wang & Bo Feng & Qing-Song Hua & Li Sun, 2021. "Short-Term Solar Power Forecasting: A Combined Long Short-Term Memory and Gaussian Process Regression Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-16, March.
    14. Sibtain, Muhammad & Li, Xianshan & Saleem, Snoober & Ain, Qurat-ul- & Shi, Qiang & Li, Fei & Saeed, Muhammad & Majeed, Fatima & Shah, Syed Shoaib Ahmed & Saeed, Muhammad Hammad, 2022. "Multifaceted irradiance prediction by exploiting hybrid decomposition-entropy-Spatiotemporal attention based Sequence2Sequence models," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 648-682.
    15. Yannik Hahn & Tristan Langer & Richard Meyes & Tobias Meisen, 2023. "Time Series Dataset Survey for Forecasting with Deep Learning," Forecasting, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-21, March.
    16. Gupta, Priya & Singh, Rhythm, 2023. "Combining a deep learning model with multivariate empirical mode decomposition for hourly global horizontal irradiance forecasting," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 908-927.
    17. Rial A. Rajagukguk & Raden A. A. Ramadhan & Hyun-Jin Lee, 2020. "A Review on Deep Learning Models for Forecasting Time Series Data of Solar Irradiance and Photovoltaic Power," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-23, December.
    18. Azizi, Narjes & Yaghoubirad, Maryam & Farajollahi, Meisam & Ahmadi, Abolfzl, 2023. "Deep learning based long-term global solar irradiance and temperature forecasting using time series with multi-step multivariate output," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 206(C), pages 135-147.

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