Solar irradiation forecasting using RBF networks for PV systems with storage

Abstract

In this paper a Radial Basis Function (RBF) neural network is proposed to obtain the 24-hr forecast of the solar irradiation on the horizontal plane in the city of Ancona, Italy. This information is used to estimate the production of a PhotoVoltaic (PV) plant in order to provide the 'Gestore dei Servizi Energetici' (the main italian provider of energy services) with the power production profile of the next day. The company Energy Resources SPA has experimentally tested the proposed solution by a 14 KWp PV plant and a lithium battery pack. The battery pack is used to store the exceding power produced or to supply the lack of power compared with the reference.