A bidirectional gated recurrent unit based novel stacking ensemble regressor for foretelling the global horizontal irradiance

The rapid expansion of solar power generation has led to new challenges in solar intermittency, requiring precise forecasts of Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI). Accurate GHI predictions are crucial for integrating sustainable energy sources into traditional electrical grid management. The article proposes an innovative solution, the novel Enhanced Stack Ensemble with a Bi-directional Gated Recurrent Unit (ESE-Bi-GRU), which uses machine learning (ML) boosting regressors such as Ada Boost, Cat Boost, Extreme Gradient Boost, and Gradient Boost, and Light Gradient Boost Machine acts as a base learner and the deep learning (DL) algorithms such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) for both directions are taken as a meta-learner. The predictive performance of the proposed ESE-Bi-GRU model is evaluated against individual models, showing significant reductions in mean absolute error (MAE) by 86.03 % and root mean squared error (RMSE) by 66.43 %. The model's ability to minimize prediction errors, such as MAE and RMSE holds promise for more effective planning and utilization of sporadic solar resources. By improving GHI forecast accuracy, the ESE-Bi-GRU model contributes to optimizing the integration of sustainable energy sources within the broader energy grid, fostering a more sustainable and environmentally conscious approach to energy management.