IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/intfor/v41y2025i3p1223-1236.html

SolNet: Open-source deep learning models for photovoltaic power forecasting across the globe

Author

Listed:
  • Depoortere, Joris
  • Driesen, Johan
  • Suykens, Johan
  • Kazmi, Hussain Syed

Abstract

Deep learning models have gained increasing prominence in recent years in solar photovoltaic (PV) forecasting. One drawback of these models is that they require a lot of high-quality data to perform well. This is often infeasible in practice, due to poor measurement infrastructure in legacy systems and the rapid build-up of new solar systems across the world. This paper proposes SolNet: a novel, general-purpose, multivariate solar power forecaster, which addresses these challenges by using a two-step forecasting pipeline that incorporates transfer learning from abundant synthetic data generated from PVGIS, before fine-tuning on observational data.

Suggested Citation

  • Depoortere, Joris & Driesen, Johan & Suykens, Johan & Kazmi, Hussain Syed, 2025. "SolNet: Open-source deep learning models for photovoltaic power forecasting across the globe," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 1223-1236.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:intfor:v:41:y:2025:i:3:p:1223-1236
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijforecast.2024.12.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169207024001316
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijforecast.2024.12.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tao Hong & Pierre Pinson & Yi Wang & Rafal Weron & Dazhi Yang & Hamidreza Zareipour, 2020. "Energy forecasting: A review and outlook," WORking papers in Management Science (WORMS) WORMS/20/08, Department of Operations Research and Business Intelligence, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology.
    2. Kazmi, Hussain & Tao, Zhenmin, 2022. "How good are TSO load and renewable generation forecasts: Learning curves, challenges, and the road ahead," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    3. Makridakis, Spyros & Spiliotis, Evangelos & Assimakopoulos, Vassilios, 2018. "The M4 Competition: Results, findings, conclusion and way forward," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 802-808.
    4. Notton, Gilles & Nivet, Marie-Laure & Voyant, Cyril & Paoli, Christophe & Darras, Christophe & Motte, Fabrice & Fouilloy, Alexis, 2018. "Intermittent and stochastic character of renewable energy sources: Consequences, cost of intermittence and benefit of forecasting," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 96-105.
    5. Panwar, N.L. & Kaushik, S.C. & Kothari, Surendra, 2011. "Role of renewable energy sources in environmental protection: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 1513-1524, April.
    6. Hu, Qinghua & Zhang, Rujia & Zhou, Yucan, 2016. "Transfer learning for short-term wind speed prediction with deep neural networks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 83-95.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Voyant, Cyril & Notton, Gilles & Duchaud, Jean-Laurent & Gutiérrez, Luis Antonio García & Bright, Jamie M. & Yang, Dazhi, 2022. "Benchmarks for solar radiation time series forecasting," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C), pages 747-762.
    2. Weronika Nitka & Rafał Weron, 2023. "Combining predictive distributions of electricity prices. Does minimizing the CRPS lead to optimal decisions in day-ahead bidding?," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 33(3), pages 105-118.
    3. Yang, Dazhi & van der Meer, Dennis, 2021. "Post-processing in solar forecasting: Ten overarching thinking tools," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    4. Nikolaos Kolokas & Dimosthenis Ioannidis & Dimitrios Tzovaras, 2021. "Multi-Step Energy Demand and Generation Forecasting with Confidence Used for Specification-Free Aggregate Demand Optimization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-36, May.
    5. Kohút, Roman & Klaučo, Martin & Kvasnica, Michal, 2025. "Unified carbon emissions and market prices forecasts of the power grid," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PC).
    6. Lauret, Philippe & Alonso-Suárez, Rodrigo & Amaro e Silva, Rodrigo & Boland, John & David, Mathieu & Herzberg, Wiebke & Le Gall La Salle, Josselin & Lorenz, Elke & Visser, Lennard & van Sark, Wilfried, 2024. "The added value of combining solar irradiance data and forecasts: A probabilistic benchmarking exercise," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(PB).
    7. Yang, Mao & Huang, Yutong & Xu, Chuanyu & Liu, Chenyu & Dai, Bozhi, 2025. "Review of several key processes in wind power forecasting: Mathematical formulations, scientific problems, and logical relations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 377(PC).
    8. Sheybanivaziri, Samaneh & Le Dréau, Jérôme & Kazmi, Hussain, 2024. "Forecasting price spikes in day-ahead electricity markets: techniques, challenges, and the road ahead," Discussion Papers 2024/1, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    9. Wellens, Arnoud P. & Udenio, Maxi & Boute, Robert N., 2022. "Transfer learning for hierarchical forecasting: Reducing computational efforts of M5 winning methods," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 1482-1491.
    10. van Zyl, Corne & Ye, Xianming & Naidoo, Raj, 2024. "Harnessing eXplainable artificial intelligence for feature selection in time series energy forecasting: A comparative analysis of Grad-CAM and SHAP," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 353(PA).
    11. Jing Wan & Jiehui Huang & Zhiyuan Liao & Chunquan Li & Peter X. Liu, 2022. "A Multi-View Ensemble Width-Depth Neural Network for Short-Term Wind Power Forecasting," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-20, May.
    12. Yang, Dazhi & Wang, Wenting & Gueymard, Christian A. & Hong, Tao & Kleissl, Jan & Huang, Jing & Perez, Marc J. & Perez, Richard & Bright, Jamie M. & Xia, Xiang’ao & van der Meer, Dennis & Peters, Ian , 2022. "A review of solar forecasting, its dependence on atmospheric sciences and implications for grid integration: Towards carbon neutrality," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    13. Smyl, Slawek, 2020. "A hybrid method of exponential smoothing and recurrent neural networks for time series forecasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 75-85.
    14. Wenran Gao & Hui Li & Karnowo & Bing Song & Shu Zhang, 2020. "Integrated Leaching and Thermochemical Technologies for Producing High-Value Products from Rice Husk: Leaching of Rice Husk with the Aqueous Phases of Bioliquids," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-15, November.
    15. Billé, Anna Gloria & Gianfreda, Angelica & Del Grosso, Filippo & Ravazzolo, Francesco, 2023. "Forecasting electricity prices with expert, linear, and nonlinear models," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 570-586.
    16. Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar & Aneesh A. Chand & Maria Malvoni & Kushal A. Prasad & Kabir A. Mamun & F.R. Islam & Shauhrat S. Chopra, 2020. "Distributed Energy Resources and the Application of AI, IoT, and Blockchain in Smart Grids," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-42, November.
    17. Mahtta, Richa & Joshi, P.K. & Jindal, Alok Kumar, 2014. "Solar power potential mapping in India using remote sensing inputs and environmental parameters," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 255-262.
    18. Karatayev, Marat & Clarke, Michèle L., 2016. "A review of current energy systems and green energy potential in Kazakhstan," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 491-504.
    19. Hewamalage, Hansika & Bergmeir, Christoph & Bandara, Kasun, 2021. "Recurrent Neural Networks for Time Series Forecasting: Current status and future directions," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 388-427.
    20. Liang, Tao & Zhao, Qing & Lv, Qingzhao & Sun, Hexu, 2021. "A novel wind speed prediction strategy based on Bi-LSTM, MOOFADA and transfer learning for centralized control centers," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:intfor:v:41:y:2025:i:3:p:1223-1236. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijforecast .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.