AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
The Project PerduS: Assessment of the Mineral Dust Related Reduction of Photovoltaic Power Generation in Central Europe with ICON-ART
JOCHEN FÖRSTNER, Andrea Steiner, Vanessa Bachmann, Daniel Rieger, Philipp Gasch, Bernhard Vogel, Heike Vogel, Bodo Ritter, German Weather Service
Abstract Number: 318 Working Group: Remote and Regional Atmospheric Aerosols
Abstract The importance of photovoltaic (PV-) power in Germany’s energy mix is constantly increasing. In 2015, approximately 7.5 % of Germany’s net energy consumption was supplied by photovoltaic energy. Currently, about 1.5 Million PV-plants provide an installed capacity of 40 GW and, during sunny days, PV-power can supply up to 50 % of Germany’s instantaneous energy consumption.
The research project PerduS is a collaboration of the German Weather Service (DWD), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and meteocontrol GmbH with the aim to improve PV power forecasts during Saharan dust outbreaks. Current operational numerical weather prediction (NWP) models rely on aerosol climatologies and do not consider the effects of the additional mineral dust in the atmosphere during such special weather situations. The core component of PerduS is the new online-coupled model system ICON-ART. It combines the global non-hydrostatic NWP model ICON and the ART modules for the treatment of Aerosols and Reactive Trace gases in the atmosphere in an integrated quasi-operational system.
Different case studies concerning Saharan dust outbreaks are considered in order to investigate, improve and validate against observations the dispersion forecast of mineral dust with ICON-ART. Clear sky cases are examined to study the dust emission and radiation interactions. During such weather conditions, the ICON-ART simulations can be compared e.g. to aerosol observations. Cloudy conditions instead complicate these measurements. Nevertheless, simulations including aerosol cloud interaction during cloudy conditions are conducted as well. The focus of these studies is on assessing the contribution of direct and indirect effects, i.e. the radiation and cloud feedback mechanisms to an improvement of PV-power forecasts.
Keywords: PV power, Saharan dust outbreaks, direct and indirect aerosol effects, numerical weather prediction, ICON-ART