The EU revised Renewable Energy Directive establishes an overall policy for the production and promotion of energy from renewable sources in the EU. It requires the EU to fulfill at least 27% of its total energy needs with renewables by 2030 – to be achieved through the attainment of individual national targets. The directive promotes cooperation amongst EU countries (and with countries outside the EU) to help them meet their renewable energy targets through innovative actions and products that are targeting on the maximization of renewable (e.g. solar) energy exploitation. Within the BEYOND Center of Excellence a nowcasting system and short term forecasting system for solar energy exploitation has been developed using advanced technical capacities of Earth Observation (EO) based services in combination with scientific measurement and radiative transfer and neural network modeling results. The system (SENSE) has been already demonstrated and used within the Geo-Cradle EU funded project and targets, transmission and distribution energy operators in a European, Middle East and north Africa domains, private and national bodies, ministries and related stakeholders and the public through public awareness systems and initiatives.
