Climate services in support of the German energy transition: Examples that make a difference

The energy sector has a wide range of requirements for meteorological services. Operating a weather-dependent energy system, especially with a high share of solar and wind energy, requires reliable weather and climate information. Here, we discuss examples of climate services and their applications in the context of the energy transition in Germany. These services are based on observation- and model-based climate datasets. These datasets provide information, especially on wind and solar radiation for the past decades, but also as seasonal forecasts. They support user-oriented status reports, trend analyses, energy-system studies, and assessments of the site-specific renewable energy potential. For the observational period, the relative strengths of station-based, satellite-based, and reanalysis data vary by parameter, and all three data categories are under active development at Germany’s national meteorological service (DWD). In this paper, we provide an overview of relevant datasets as well as examples of their applications and provide an insight into ongoing projects and user-oriented climate services. The applications span the PV and wind sectors, as well as analyses of trends and extreme events (‘Dunkelflaute’). The focus is on examples that have been created in co-design with relevant partners and thereby addressing specific requirements.