Solar and wind power generation indicators

Will solar and wind energy lead the growth in US power generation?

Solar and wind energy will lead the growth in U.S. power generation for at least the next two years, according to EIA estimates. This report uses data from the EIA to analyze solar and wind capacity and generation over the past decade (2014 to 2023) in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Where do solar and wind power data come from?

All national and state-level data come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Utility-scale solar and wind summer capacity values for 2014-2022 are as reported in EIA’s Historical State Data for each year.

Why is wind prediction error affected by hourly power generation?

The wind prediction error is affected by the hourly power generation because the prediction model is employed based on the irregular hourly wind output. In contrast, the solar prediction error is affected by daily fluctuations since solar generation exhibits daily periodicity.

How to predict wind & solar output based on error-analysis benchmarks?

Error-analysis benchmarks for wind and solar output forecasting are of great value in academic research and industry. First, a prediction error database of the wind and solar output should be obtained via benchmark prediction methods, e.g., neural network-based 25, data mining 26, and regression methods 27.

Why is wind power forecasting irregular?

The reason is that wind power prediction is conducted hour-by-hour, and the daily wind power generation is irregular and cannot reflect the hourly wind generation pattern. Regarding solar power, power generation varies periodically daily, and the characteristics of the hourly first-order difference could be masked by this daily periodicity.

How do we model the output of solar and wind power?

To model the output of Solar and Wind power, the study utilizes the System Advisory Model, incorporating solar data from the National Solar Radiation Database and wind data from the Wind Integration National Dataset Toolkit.