New solar forecasts shed light on sun’s power potential

New solar forecasts shed light on sun’s power potential

With over 3,400- households in the Auckland region already powered by sustainable energy from the sun, MetService and HRV Solar have joined forces to produce a new forecast for the daily energy potential of the sun for the Auckland region.

The Auckland region accounts for 22% of the total number of residential solar installations in the country. The new Solar Forecast is displayed on the Auckland page of the metservice.com website: http://www.metservice.com/towns-cities/auckland/auckland-central and shows the total amount of electricity forecast to be generated by all solar panels in the region for the day.

MetService general manager meteorological operations Ramon Oosterkamp said, "Solar energy forecasts are another way for us to transform environmental data into something useful and meaningful for New Zealanders, which is what MetService is all about."

The forecast considers factors such as cloud cover, cloud density and atmospheric water content to calculate the total expected amount of solar energy production. Forecasts are issued in kilowatt hours (kWh), the recognised unit for solar power. One kilowatt hour is about enough power to run a laptop computer for 24 hours, boil a kettle seven times, or heat leftovers in the microwave 20 times.

Justin Boyes, marketing director of forecast sponsor HRV Solar said, "We’re excited to be working with MetService to showcase the sun’s potential as an energy source and how New Zealanders can make this renewable resource work for them."

MetService expects to take solar forecasts nationwide on its website in 2018.

-Source: Electricity Authority, October 2017.

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