Weather data to boost US solar and storage projects
Meteorological data from Slovak provider Solargis is being used by US renewable company Apex Clean Energy to advance over 10GW of solar and storage projects.
The high resolution, granular resource and meteorological data is being deployed to optimise over 120 of Apex’s solar projects during design, development and operations, while enabling projects to better integrate advanced technologies such as bifacial PV and energy storage.
Gaining a better understanding of solar resources across the US and maximising the impact of new technologies should help to accelerate the shift away from fossil fuel dependence, according to Solargis in a statement.
It adds that the US solar market is rapidly approaching a turning point as high oil prices drive energy security further up the agenda., while there is fresh uncertainty around hardware tariffs and significant global supply chain volatility.
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To support Apex’s bifacial projects, Solargis has provided extensively validated albedo data, which measures surface reflectivity, unlocking optimal designs and more efficient operations of a technology around which there has been question marks.
Solargis also has provided Apex Clean Energy with accurate one and five-minute data to support seamless battery energy storage operations and better grid integration, with such sub-hourly time series data considered critical to unlocking the full benefits of solar plus storage facilities.
“As the technological complexity of solar assets increases, high-quality resource data becomes more essential every day,” says George Szabo, Director of Solar Design at Apex Clean Energy.
“Apex strives to create tangible value for every project, and Solargis – with the lowest global horizontal irradiance model uncertainty and interannual variability when paired with our ground monitoring stations – has enabled our team to do so.”
Giridaran Srinivasan, Solargis’ CEO for the Americas, adds that rising transparency around crucial project decisions means US renewable investors are scrutinising financial projections rigorously, which in turn requires high-quality solar resource data.
