Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.

The renewable energy industry requires accurate forecasts of intermittent solar irradiance (SI) to effectively manage solar power generation and supply. Introducing the random forests (RFs) model and its hybridisation with quantile regression modelling, the quantile regression random forest (QRRF),...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Amon Masache, Precious Mdlongwa, Daniel Maposa, Caston Sigauke
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2024-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312814
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846122197938077696
author Amon Masache
Precious Mdlongwa
Daniel Maposa
Caston Sigauke
author_facet Amon Masache
Precious Mdlongwa
Daniel Maposa
Caston Sigauke
author_sort Amon Masache
collection DOAJ
description The renewable energy industry requires accurate forecasts of intermittent solar irradiance (SI) to effectively manage solar power generation and supply. Introducing the random forests (RFs) model and its hybridisation with quantile regression modelling, the quantile regression random forest (QRRF), can help improve the forecasts' accuracy. This paper assesses the RFs and QRRF models against the quantile generalised additive model (QGAM) by evaluating their forecast performances. A simulation study of multivariate data-generating processes was carried out to compare the forecasting accuracy of the models when predicting global horizontal solar irradiance. The QRRF and QGAM are completely new forecasting frameworks for SI studies, to the best of our knowledge. Simulation results suggested that the introduced QRRF compared well with the QGAM when predicting the forecast distribution. However, the evaluations of the pinball loss scores and mean absolute scaled errors demonstrated a clear superiority of the QGAM. Similar results were obtained in an application to real-life data. Therefore, we recommend that the QGAM be preferred ahead of decision tree-based models when predicting solar irradiance. However, the QRRF model can be used alternatively to predict the forecast distribution. Both the QGAM and QRRF modelling frameworks went beyond representing forecast uncertainty of SI as probability distributions around a prediction interval to give complete information through the estimation of quantiles. Most SI studies conducted are residual and/or non-parametric modelling that are limited to represent information about the conditional mean distribution. Extensions of the QRRF and QGAM frameworks can be made to model other renewable sources of energy that have meteorological characteristics similar to solar irradiance.
format Article
id doaj-art-ad7d4c1a0ffc47edb55b1cd016274fdf
institution Kabale University
issn 1932-6203
language English
publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
record_format Article
series PLoS ONE
spelling doaj-art-ad7d4c1a0ffc47edb55b1cd016274fdf2024-12-15T05:31:31ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032024-01-011912e031281410.1371/journal.pone.0312814Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.Amon MasachePrecious MdlongwaDaniel MaposaCaston SigaukeThe renewable energy industry requires accurate forecasts of intermittent solar irradiance (SI) to effectively manage solar power generation and supply. Introducing the random forests (RFs) model and its hybridisation with quantile regression modelling, the quantile regression random forest (QRRF), can help improve the forecasts' accuracy. This paper assesses the RFs and QRRF models against the quantile generalised additive model (QGAM) by evaluating their forecast performances. A simulation study of multivariate data-generating processes was carried out to compare the forecasting accuracy of the models when predicting global horizontal solar irradiance. The QRRF and QGAM are completely new forecasting frameworks for SI studies, to the best of our knowledge. Simulation results suggested that the introduced QRRF compared well with the QGAM when predicting the forecast distribution. However, the evaluations of the pinball loss scores and mean absolute scaled errors demonstrated a clear superiority of the QGAM. Similar results were obtained in an application to real-life data. Therefore, we recommend that the QGAM be preferred ahead of decision tree-based models when predicting solar irradiance. However, the QRRF model can be used alternatively to predict the forecast distribution. Both the QGAM and QRRF modelling frameworks went beyond representing forecast uncertainty of SI as probability distributions around a prediction interval to give complete information through the estimation of quantiles. Most SI studies conducted are residual and/or non-parametric modelling that are limited to represent information about the conditional mean distribution. Extensions of the QRRF and QGAM frameworks can be made to model other renewable sources of energy that have meteorological characteristics similar to solar irradiance.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312814
spellingShingle Amon Masache
Precious Mdlongwa
Daniel Maposa
Caston Sigauke
Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.
PLoS ONE
title Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.
title_full Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.
title_fullStr Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.
title_full_unstemmed Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.
title_short Short-term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree-based models and non-parametric quantile regression.
title_sort short term forecasting of solar irradiance using decision tree based models and non parametric quantile regression
url https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312814
work_keys_str_mv AT amonmasache shorttermforecastingofsolarirradianceusingdecisiontreebasedmodelsandnonparametricquantileregression
AT preciousmdlongwa shorttermforecastingofsolarirradianceusingdecisiontreebasedmodelsandnonparametricquantileregression
AT danielmaposa shorttermforecastingofsolarirradianceusingdecisiontreebasedmodelsandnonparametricquantileregression
AT castonsigauke shorttermforecastingofsolarirradianceusingdecisiontreebasedmodelsandnonparametricquantileregression