Earth and space weather energy sector impacts set to be better understood

New initiatives have been launched to research the impacts of the Earth’s weather and climate and of space weather.

The Dutch TSO TenneT has sealed a collaboration with the country’s meteorological organisation KNMI to develop a joint research agenda at the intersection of energy and climate.

The aim, with the increasing dependence on the sun and wind on electricity production and consumption, is to jointly gain a better understanding of the impact of weather effects on the energy security of the Netherlands and issues such as energy system planning.

‘We are not only looking at the current relevant issues from our perspective as grid managers, but also at what knowledge will be needed in the coming years,” explains Margriet Rouhof, Tennet’s head of Strategy

Have you read?
Tech Talk | Are you prepared for extreme space weather?
Europe’s ‘Destination Earth’ to deliver climate data for energy planning

“Not only does this have an impact on the day-to-day operation of the grid, but KNMI’s knowledge of the risks of climate change also helps us when we design a new pylon, for example. What extreme wind gusts will it have to withstand in the future? And what impact will extreme heat and the need for active cooling have on our energy system?”

Maarten van Aalst, managing director of KNMI, adds that working together with TenneT enables the organisation to be relevant to the opportunities and risks of the energy transition.

“We will carry out targeted research on, for example, the impact of weather and climate variability on sustainable energy supply.”

Space weather impacts

Meanwhile over in the US, researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology have been awarded an $0.6 million National Science Foundation grant to develop an AI-powered space weather forecasting system.

Its aim is to support solar researchers for studies into the complex magnetic fields in the Sun’s lower atmosphere in order to gain insights into the triggering of space weather events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections and thus boost the early warning detection of these.

Yan Xu, professor in NJIT’s Institute for Space Weather Sciences and the three-year project’s principal investigator, says that critical data on these processes are lacking.

“SolarDM’s data insights potentially give us a way to map the magnetic landscape of this region, allowing us to better predict these powerful eruptions.”

The current forecast horizon of state-of-the-art solar eruption forecasting systems is 24 hours.

If successful, SolarDM, the new AI-powered forecasting system, is expected to be able to boost the early-warning detection to up to three days as well as more accurately predict where the events could strike.