Solar Photovoltaic Power Forecasting: A Review

The recent global warming effect has brought into focus different solutions for combating climate change. The generation of climate-friendly renewable energy alternatives has been vastly improved and commercialized for power generation. As a result of this industrial revolution, solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have drawn much attention as a power generation source for varying applications, including the main utility-grid power supply. There has been tremendous growth in both on- and off-grid solar PV installations in the last few years. This trend is expected to continue over the next few years as government legislation and awareness campaigns increase to encourage a shift toward using renewable energy alternatives. Despite the numerous advantages of solar PV power generation, the highly variable nature of the sun’s irradiance in different seasons of various geopolitical areas/regions can significantly affect the expected energy yield. This variation directly impacts the profitability or economic viability of the system, and cannot be neglected. To overcome this challenge, various procedures have been applied to forecast the generated solar PV energy. This study provides a comprehensive and systematic review of recent advances in solar PV power forecasting techniques with a focus on data-driven procedures. It critically analyzes recent studies on solar PV power forecasting to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques or models implemented. The clarity provided will form a basis for higher accuracy in future models and applications.