DNV Acquires Solar Data Specialist Solcast

In a move towards strengthening  its solar forecasting services, Norwegian energy risk management company and assurance provider DNV has acquired Australian solar data specialist Solcast.

Six-year-old Solcast was founded by metrologists James Luffman and Dr Nick Engerer, providing historical, live as well as forecast data on solar irradiance, wrapped in a modern application user interface (API).

Its offerings find takers among solar power producers, power grids and the like to determine their solar resource availability at any given time. It’s reported to have closed 2021-22 with $7 million in revenues.

Talking about the acquisition, DNV’s Energy Transition Outlook, said that there is a fast-growing need in the energy market for reliable data analytics and trusted monitoring systems. As market reports estimate the demand and production of electricity to rise tremendously, electricity production, specifically, is forecast to more than double, and 30% of all electricity to come from solar PV.

To help the solar power production meet its objectives, Solcast uses the latest global weather satellite imagery, machine learning, computer vision, and historical and forecast data to produce more than 600 million new forecasts every hour in a cloud-based environment. It is also capable of providing real-time access to forecast data with a 5-15-minute resolution via an application programming interface (API).

Thus, Solcast develops data and tools required to plan, construct, operate and manage PV systems, DNV said that solar power producers could supply reliable electricity to grids using solar forecasting technologies.

Remi Eriksen, group president and CEO of DNV, said that digital products are key to unlocking the potential of solar, particularly if we are to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. He further highlighted the advantages of integrating solar forecasting with energy storage. For instance, it allows solar power producers to plan and dispatch energy on demand.

DNV added that real-time access to accurate short-term forecasts help customers to evaluate power plant operations and losses, and improve plant performance, ultimately reducing costs and maximising system and portfolio productivity.