Daily solar weather forecast?

solarix

Does anyone know of a weather type website that includes any type of forecast of the projected daily solar gain for specific locations? You know, type in your zipcode and it would say "60% solar today" or even "60% overcast today". This would be nice to know, and for large operators especially.

Cariboocoot

Re: Daily solar weather forcast?

Considering it would be as accurate as any other weather forecast you might as well build a wheel with numbers from 0 to 12 on it and give it a spin.

Two of the days this week when it was supposed to be sunny here, it snowed.

BB.

Re: Daily solar weather forcast?

You might try looking for a UV Forecast (ultraviolet). Would this be "close enough" for your needs?

http://www.weather.com/maps/activity/skinprotection/index_large.html

-Bill

thehardway

Re: Daily solar weather forcast?

There an app for that! LOL. Seriously would it be that hard to create an app that you would enter your zip and your nominal PV rating and then it goes out and pulls the info from a selected weather source by zip and then compares that to the solar insolence tables for your area and gives you back your expected energy production for the day? It might even be eligible for some grant money. Could do the same for wind. That said here are some solar related Apps for mobile devices and some of them might even be useful... http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/solar-at-home/2011/08/01/20-solar-apps-for-your-iphone/

solarix

Re: Daily solar weather forcast?

Turns out the Sunshot initiative is working on this: http://energy.gov/articles/beyond-partly-sunny-better-solar-forecast

stephendv

Re: Daily solar weather forcast?

wunderground.com have a cloud cover prediction at the bottom of their pages:

Attachment not found.

niel

Re: Daily solar weather forecast?

you can also go to weather.com as they do allow for zip code input and will give an hourly prediction of the cloud cover, precip forecast %, and so on. they also have a uv prediction for the day. it's not geared for solar purposes as is the case for most weather predictions, but it can be pieced together enough for you to get an idea.