Renewable energy, like wind and solar energy, is not continuously available due to meteorological factors. The production of a solar farm heavily depends on the amount of solar irradiance in a given location. However, solar irradiance varies throughout the day and throughout the seasons, which is also affected by aerosol optical properties and cloud cover. Besides, without energy storage system, a solar farm does not produce power at night. This kind of intermittency increases the risk of power outage when integrating “unstable” energy source into electricity grids. Therefore, a power grid requires a wind or a solar farm to submit its production plan on the day before the operating day in China.  

"If a renewable-energy power plant wants to know future amount of its "fuels", more accurate power forecasting would be necessary. The cutting-edge weather forecast plays a key role in power prediction technology,” says IAP Ph. D student ZHANG Yue, who is coordinating the communications between IAP and CVIG. ”The state-of-the-art numerical weather prediction models and statistical approaches at IAP hereafter will help power plants, and transmission system operators, to supply more clean energy to the community and largely reduce the use of coals. Our research outputs will directly benefit renewable energy sector, and make great contribution definitely to Green Olympics in 2022.” 

CVIG, which is organized by National Energy Administration and sponsored by Energy Foundation, was established in 2014 at China National Renewable Energy Centre, to provide a forum of renewable energy integration technology for research institutions, universities, enterprises and professional associations in domestic. The group’s mission is to accelerate the development and application of advanced technology, engineering practice, operational mechanism, and policy & regulations, supporting the appropriate integration and reliable operation of variable generation on China’s electric power industry. The active members include China National Renewable Energy Centre, Electric Power Planning & Engineering Institute, China Renewable Energy Engineering Institute, China Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Energy Research Institute, State Power Economic Research Institute, China Longyuan Power Group Corporation Ltd, Huaneng Renewables Corporation Ltd, Chinese Wind Energy Association, Institute of Electrical Engineering of CAS, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of CAS, Tsinghua University, and North China Electric Power University etc.