Use Case: Renewable Energy Forecasting

[jaredalee]

Describe the Use Case

This I-WRF demo will involve configuring the WRF container to run a single WRF-Solar simulation for ~48 h duration with 15-min output over a high-resolution domain over New York State (NYS). This simulation length will span both intra-day and day-ahead time horizons, which are relevant for electric utility operations. The verifying observations will come from the NYS Mesonet, which has graciously agreed to allow us to post 48 h of NYSM observations publicly with this I-WRF use case demo. The METplus container will use point-stat to verify surface variables (including global horizontal irradiance, 2-m temperature, and 10-m wind speed) at the 127 standard network stations and hub-height variables (100-m wind speed, 100-m temperature) at the 17 profiler network stations. Visualization scripts will plot maps of WRF output, maps of errors across the network of stations, as well as time series of the bulk errors.

Use Case Name and Category

Renewable Energy Forecasting. In the Users Guide, this will replace 6.3. Regional Climate Simulations. The NCAR and Cornell PIs have collectively agreed to this change.

Input Data

• 48 h of forecasts from the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) model, which can be freely downloaded from AWS, to serve as the initial and lateral boundary conditions (ICs/LBCs) for WRF (nothing to be stored locally)
• Surface observations from NYS Mesonet's 127 standard network stations (GHI, 2-m T, 10-m WS, SLP, precip) (minimal file size)
• Hub-height observations from NYS Mesonet's 17 profiler network stations (100-m WS, 100-m T) (minimal file size)

Acceptance Testing

Describe tests required for new functionality.
As use case develops, provide a run time here
Initially build, test, and document instructions for this use case demo on NSF NCAR HPC. Then do the same on Jetstream2 and Red Cloud.

Time Estimate

3–4 weeks total for all the sub-issues (to be listed below as they get created).

Sub-Issues

• Update RTD from Regional Climate Simulations to Renewable Energy Forecasting (as part of Update RTD documentation from review notes #96)
• Build WRF container for Renewable Energy use case #98
• Build METplus container for Renewable Energy use case #100

Relevant Deadlines

1 May 2026

Funding Source

NSF I-WRF project (PRJ003917)

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New Use Case Checklist

• Complete the issue definition above, including the Time Estimate and Funding source.
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