Renewable Energy and Transportation
Besides improving conventional weather forecasting, the National Mesonet has also emerged as a key tool to aid the development of the domestic renewable energy industry and improve the efficiency of the nation’s transportation network. Significant improvement in short-term wind forecasts with higher resolution make integration of renewable wind energy into the power grid practical — wind farms that lack such data can miss out on billions of dollars in unrealized operating efficiencies. In aviation, some two-thirds of the annual impact of severe weather delays ($19 billion) could be mitigated with better weather information. On the ground, National Mesonet road weather and vehicle-mounted mobile weather sensors also provide extremely high resolution observations in real time, improving safety on our nation’s increasingly crowded highways.
Renewable Energy and Transportation
Besides improving conventional weather forecasting, the National Mesonet has also emerged as a key tool to aid the development of the domestic renewable energy industry and improve the efficiency of the nation’s transportation network. Significant improvement in short-term wind forecasts with higher resolution make integration of renewable wind energy into the power grid practical — wind farms that lack such data can miss out on billions of dollars in unrealized operating efficiencies. In aviation, some two-thirds of the annual impact of severe weather delays ($19 billion) could be mitigated with better weather information. On the ground, National Mesonet road weather and vehicle-mounted mobile weather sensors also provide extremely high resolution observations in real time, improving safety on our nation’s increasingly crowded highways.