The Destination Renewable Energy (DRE) Service forecasts and assesses solar and wind energy potential using real-time and historical data, offering tailored simulations, 2-day forecasts, and interactive visualizations through the secure digital platform of Destination Earth.
The SolarHUB operating by the BEYOND Center of the National Observatory of Athens, led the Destination Renewable Energy (DRE) project from 2023 to 2025. DRE is one of the Use Cases of the Destination Earth (DestinE) core service platform funded by the European Space Agency.
DRE acts as a decision support system, aiming at maximizing the use of DestinE platform’s data and tools, by integrating solar and wind forecast data from Weather-Induced Extremes Digital Twin along with actual end-user energy production data, to provide actionable and meaningful information for policy and decision making in the context of the green and digital transformation.
DRE developed a hybrid (solar and wind) application that provides renewable energy and power output forecasts, as well as renewable energy resource assessments, in different time scales. The application was based on the co-design with the end users and stakeholders who were part of the project and it also included a demonstration of end-user portfolio benefits optimization.
DRE’s services are built on advanced statistics and Artificial Intelligence, while utilizing the State of the Art Climate and Extremes-DT data, provided through on the DestinE platform
DRE offers unified access to DestinE Platform products, enhancing the value of high-resolution forecasting and assessment tools. By demonstrating the practical benefits of the Core Service Platform (DESP), it enables precise energy planning, supports energy security, and optimizes resource distribution. It directly aligns with EU priorities—such as the Green Deal, REPowerEU, and Directive (EU) 2018/2001—and contributes to global sustainability goals, including SDG 7 and the Paris Agreement.
The SolarHUB of the BEYOND Center has been actively involved in the development and utilization of solar energy assessment, as well as nowcasting and forecasting models through various EU-funded projects. It specifically aims to improve solar energy forecasting methods, integrate it more efficiently into electricity grids, and support investors and policymakers in making informed decisions on the development of renewable energy sources, by providing valuable data on the availability and accuracy of solar radiation, and modeling its temporal and spatial distribution.
The DestinE Platform developed by ESA, is the entry point to the DestinE ecosystem, providing decision-making tools, applications and services, supporting DestinE data exploitation, based on an open, flexible, and secure cloud-based computing system.
Destination Earth is an ambitious initiative of the European Commission, that aims to create a digital replica of the Earth system to support responding and adapting to environmental challenges posed by climate change and extreme events. The components that enable Destination Earth:
- the DestinE Platform developed by ESA, provides decision-making tools, applications and services, based on an open, flexible, and secure cloud-based computing system;
- the Data Lake developed by EUMETSAT, provides harmonisation of data access, facilitation of access to the Digital Twins data outputs, and big data and near data processing;
- The Digital Twin Engine and the first two high-priority Digital Twins developed by ECMWF, provides bespoke km-scale simulations to enable better responding and adapting to the impacts climate change and extreme-weather events.
DRE is developed by the BEYOND Center of the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) in collaboration with ENORA INNOVATION, WeMET P.C. and Quest Energy S.A., and supported by the European Space Agency (ESA).
Useful Links:
- Access the DRE service here
- Discover Destination Renewable Energy (DRE) here
- Watch the DRE video