The Weather as an Economic Factor
Thanks to its activities for the interests of the energy industry the Deutscher Wetterdienst has been, for many years now, a major contributor to climate and environmental protection. By providing precise weather forecasts, a sophisticated weather observation network and an extensive climate data base, the DWD supports and optimises the use of renewable and fossil fuels in the most varied branches of the energy industry.
Following the liberalisation of the electricity and gas market, which is slowly taking effect in Germany, the demand for reliable weather information has been increasing enormously.
In this context, the DWD co-operates confidently with market participants from all sectors.
Virtual power plants
Increasing importance is now being placed on the integration of decentralised energy production into the existing supply infrastructure. Intelligent information technologies provide the possibility to combine fluctuating energies such as wind and photovoltaic solar power as well as biomass and pump storage power to form 'virtual power plants'.
The highly accurate weather forecasts provided by the model chain, which consists of models of the DWD and of other European National Meteorological Services, help to optimise the mix of available energies and precisely respond to the energy load curves. Presentations made on this issue have already attracted much interest from politics and business.
Project work
Together with the major energy suppliers and research institutions, the DWD makes a competent partner for projects relating to the supply of renewable energies.
In response to the rapidly increasing number of photovoltaic installations, for example, the energy industry is making a great effort to develop methods for determining the vastly growing amount of energy within their supply areas for better planning.
Here, the DWD provides support by delivering the relevant data and making available its long-standing know-how in the same way as it does in connection with the integration of the large amounts of offshore energy.
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