Open Climate Fix forecasting on an upward trajectory
Open Climate Fix is a young company based in the UK, specializing in solar production forecasting through the application of AI models with their flagship product, quartz.solar. These forecasts leverage real-time data, and the coverage can span from individual solar farms to aggregations across regions such as the UK National Grid. The primary advantage of these forecasts arises from the integration of multiple data sources, coupled with a sophisticated ML framework.
One of the co-founders of the company, Dan Travers, suggested that the high accuracy of their forecasts hinges on a comprehensive data foundation coming from three critical sources: real-time weather forecasts, satellite information, which includes cloud movement data updated every few minutes and real-time data from PV farms.
The synergy of these external data sources is what makes their methodology truly distinctive, he says. Blending of weather and satellite data within sophisticated ML models enables to achieve high precision across the complete time horizon form next few hours to the day ahead. This ensures a strong position of Open Climate Fix within a competitive market for forecasting tools, Dan explained to me.
This methodology involves a substantial volume of data, which can only be effectively managed within a cloud service, enabling forecasts to be calculated for different geographical regions. This key characteristic shapes Open Climate Fix‘s business model. The company manages all input data for their clients and offers the option to access solar production forecasts via API or through a dedicated web dashboard.
Presently, Open Climate Fix‘s is predominantly employed within the UK, providing forecasts at the national grid level and for 300 GSPs (local grids). The company also collaborates with individual local solar farms.
The business is growing, and the company is actively exploring numerous international projects in Europe and Asia for their solar forecasts, as expanding to new regions involves lower incremental effort. Another development encompasses wind production forecasts, which can be built upon similar data and technology.
Open Climate Fix is committed to open-source technology in their forecasting tools, and they proudly position themselves as a non-profit organization, guided by the mission to facilitate the transition to a decarbonized energy future worldwide.
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