The paper introduces SolCloudLLM, a large language model–based framework that fuses sky‑image patches with time‑series data through bidirectional multimodal fusion for short‑term solar forecasting. Experiments on the SIRTA and SKIPP'D datasets show that SolCloudLLM outperforms existing baselines, achieving up to a 25.4% reduction in mean squared error, especially under cloudy conditions and in few‑shot scenarios.
By Ken Chen, Maneesha Perera, Wei Wang, Sachith Seneviratne, Hansani Weeratunge, Saman Halgamuge
GateFormer is a vision‑transformer model that forecasts intra‑hour global horizontal irradiance (GHI) from sky images by decomposing the forecast into a trajectory prediction and a delta prediction, then adaptively weighting these two outputs. It incorporates recent GHI measurements into the visual token stream, enabling self‑attention between image patches and irradiance data. On multiple benchmarks (NREL‑TSI, Chilbolton, SIRTA) GateFormer achieves the lowest final‑horizon root‑mean‑square error, outperforming state‑of‑the‑art transformers and demonstrating significant gains during rapid irradiance ramps.
By David Hamlyn, Sunny Chaudhary, Jonathon Hare, Tasmiat Rahman
GateFormer is a dual‑decoder Vision Transformer that forecasts intra‑hour global horizontal irradiance (GHI) from sky images by embedding observed GHI into the visual token stream and predicting both a future GHI trajectory and the final‑horizon change. The two predictions are adaptively weighted in prediction space, with magnitude‑ and direction‑supervision to reduce remaining error. On multiple benchmarks, GateFormer achieves the lowest final‑horizon RMSE, outperforming state‑of‑the‑art transformers and showing significant gains especially during positive ramp events.
SolarBench is an open global benchmark for image-based solar nowcasting that consolidates over six million sky and satellite images from 11 sites across a decade, paired with irradiance, PV output, and atmospheric data. The benchmark includes a toolbox for reproducible data access, processing, model development, and evaluation. Using SolarBench, the authors benchmark representative models, uncover a gap between average forecasting accuracy and the capture of rapid solar fluctuations, quantify predictability across cloud regimes, and demonstrate data‑efficient adaptation to new PV systems.
By Yuhao Nie, Stephen Campbell, Quentin Paletta, Liwenbo Zhang, Tao Jing, Samer Chaaraoui, Jonathan Giezendanner, Andea Scott, Tao Sun, Cong Feng, Max Aragon, Jacques Camier, Adam Jensen, Florian Kotthoff, Yuexing Yang, Yang Ming, Mengying Li, Stefanie Meilinger, Yupeng Wu, Adam Brandt, Sherrie Wang
arXiv:2608. 11254v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Accurate solar irradiance forecasting is essential for the reliable integration of photovoltaic power into modern electricity grids.
By Yann Fabel, Bijan Nouri, Milon Miah, Niklas Blum, Luis F. Zarzalejo, Julia Kowalski, Robert Pitz-Paal
arXiv:2607. 28093v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Accurate Surface Solar Irradiance (SSI) estimation is increasingly important for photovoltaic energy monitoring and forecasting.
By Gordei Prib\~otkin, Piia Post, Velle Toll