The low-pressure system, named Minerva by the Italian Meteo Aeronautica Militare, has brought heavy rain and intense winds to Italy and surrounding countries this week, causing widespread damage and tragic loss of life.
Spring brings a confluence of factors that can cause these events. Increased solar irradiance warms the ocean and land masses, creating a boundary layer of warm air. But winter-time cold airmasses have not yet fully retreated north, and if weather patterns push these airmasses together, they mix violently and a low-pressure system like Minerva can result.
On Tuesday 16th of May, Minerva was centered over Italy. Solcast was tracking the system's clouds in real-time to monitor and forecast solar production, and the rotation of the low-pressure system is clearly visible in these Solcast GHI maps. Total daily irradiance values were low, particularly in northern Italy and the west coast.
Consequently, solar PV production in Italy and the TransnetBW ISO region in southern Germany was significantly depressed from previous days. Conversely, wind power trended high, due to the intense and widespread nature of the system.
Popular content
Solcast produces these figures via its irradiance forecasting and weather API by tracking clouds and aerosols at 1 to 2 km resolution globally using satellite data and proprietary AI/ML algorithms. This data is used to drive irradiance models, enabling Solcast to calculate irradiance at high resolution, with typical bias of less than 2%, and also cloud-tracking forecasts. This data is used by more than 300 companies managing over 150 GW of solar assets globally.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own, and do not necessarily reflect those held by pv magazine.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.