Energy meteorology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Energy meteorology is a branch of meteorology. It deals with the meteorological and climatological[1] services for applications in the renewable energy sector or other weather-dependent elements in the energy system.
Background
The renewable energy sources wind and solar (especially photovoltaics) have made an increasing contribution to electricity generation in recent years.[2] Both energy sources are weather-dependent and therefore reliable meteorological information is of increasing importance for the planning and operation of the energy system.[3] Similarly, energy consumption (e.g. for heating and cooling)[4] or the production of biomass are dependent on the prevailing weather conditions. Energy meteorology is dedicated to such requirements and is thus an application-oriented subfield of meteorology.
Methods
In the renewable energy context, the energy sector requires meteorological information on various time scales,[6] for example, long-term observation data for evaluating locations or weather forecasts for estimating the energy feed-in for the coming days.
Energy meteorological tasks are therefore addressed using observational data as well as numerical weather predictions.[7] For the evaluation of long-term weather conditions, various models, such as reanalyses,[8][9] are used in addition to direct observations.
To estimate the impacts of climate change on the energy sector, climate projections based on climate models can be used.[10]
Further reading on energy meteorology
- Lars E. Olsson (1994), "ENERGY-METEOROLOGY: A new discipline", Renewable Energy, vol. 5–8, no. 5, pp. 1243–1246, Bibcode:1994REne....5.1243O, doi:10.1016/0960-1481(94)90157-0
- World Meteorological Organization (2011), "Meteorology and the energy sector – a WMO perspective", WMO Bulletin, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 73–79