team-bratwurst

Next Level Tableau Nexting

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Inspiration

The core inspiration for this project was to bridge the gap between sustainable energy generation and sustainable consumption. We have a balcony solar power plant generating clean energy and an electric vehicle that needs charging. The key question was: "Can I use the sun from today to power my commute for tomorrow?" We wanted to move beyond simple historical tracking and create a predictive tool that provides actionable insights, optimizes our use of self-generated power, and ultimately reduces our reliance on the grid.

What it does

The Solar Drive Forecaster is a complete, end-to-end data pipeline and analytics solution. In its final form, it:

  1. Collects live data every 15 minutes from a local solar inverter, capturing real-time power generation.
  2. Fetches hyper-local weather forecasts (GHI, DNI, DHI, Cloud Cover) for the next 48 hours from the Open-Meteo API.
  3. Calculates a precise power forecast in Watts, using the pvlib library to model the expected output on our specifically tilted and oriented solar panels, while respecting the 800-watt limit of the inverter.
  4. Stores and processes all data in a robust Snowflake data warehouse, creating clean, analysis-ready views that seamlessly blend historical live data with the latest forecast.
  5. Feeds a daily-updated Google Sheet which serves as a data source for a public-facing Tableau dashboard, visualizing the expected energy yield for today and tomorrow.
  6. Ultimately, it answers one simple question: "Based on today's sun, how many kilometers can I charge into my EV to cover the required driving distance for tomorrow?"

Whats next

See you at the Dreamforce

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