WASHINGTON, D.C. — Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D) and Cory Garner (R) this week announced that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will receive nearly $2 million dollars to fund a project to improve the accuracy of solar forecasts that can be used in grid operations. The grant is part of the Department of Energy’s Solar Forecasting 2 funding program, which support projects that enable grid operators to better forecast how much solar energy will be added to the grid.

“NREL’s pioneering research on solar energy puts Colorado at the forefront of the 21st century clean energy economy,” Bennet said. “We support the grant’s broader efforts to modernize our nation’s grid and look forward to seeing the results of this project as it moves us one step closer to our renewable energy goals.”

“The researchers at NREL have proven that the taxpayer dollars they receive for early-stage research projects lead to long-term benefits for the American people time and time again,” Gardner said. “This funding is good news for their continued efforts in cutting-edge weather research.  By increasing the reliability of renewable energy source forecasting models, grid operators can more efficiently run these systems.”

NREL’s project, Probabilistic Cloud Optimized Day-Ahead Forecasting System, develops a publicly available solar capability for the weather research and forecasting model. Improving this model will ultimately increase the accuracy of intra-day and day-ahead solar forecasts that can be used in grid operations.

The Solar Forecasting 2 funding program support projects that generate tools and knowledge to enable grid operators to better forecast how much solar energy will be added to the grid. These efforts will improve management of solar power and reliable, cost-effective integration onto the grid. This funding program supports the Department of Energy’s broader Grid Modernization Initiative to better integrate all sources of electricity, improve the security of our nation’s grid, solve challenges of energy storage and distributed generation, and provide a critical platform for U.S. competitiveness and innovation in a global energy economy.