High-Tech Gründerfonds and Innogy in Enercast investment
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Innogy Venture Capital and High-Tech Gründerfonds are to invest up to €2.25m (£1.83m) in Enercast, a technology company that provides electricity generation forecasts from wind and solar power sources.
Working with the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology, Enercast is said to have developed a forecast algorithm that integrates renewable energies into the electricity supply. The Kassel-based company enables location-specific electricity generation forecasts at 15-minute intervals.
Crispin Leick, managing director of Innogy Venture Capital, said: ‘Enercast addresses a fundamental problem of renewable energies.
‘Fluctuations in the feed in of wind and solar electricity lead to a burden on the grids and ultimately to a level of insecurity with regard to the supply of electricity.
‘The more reliable forecast data is available, the better renewables can be integrated into existing grids and thus into the electricity market.’
Available on the internet, the web-based forecast service reportedly builds on meteorological data such as wind speed, air pressure, temperature and measured power data from wind turbines. Moreover, for photovoltaics there are satellite images on irradiation and data from more than 36,000 photovoltaic systems of the solar power monitoring network of SMA Solar Technology.
