Hindawi Publishing Corporation he Scientiic World Journal Volume 2013, Article ID 580606, 9 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/580606 Research Article Forecasting Optimal Solar Energy Supply in Jiangsu Province (China): A Systematic Approach Using Hybrid of Weather and Energy Forecast Models Xiuli Zhao, Henry Asante Antwi, and Ethel Yiranbon School of Management, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu 212013, China Correspondence should be addressed to Xiuli Zhao; asanteantwi2@gmail.com Received 17 October 2013; Accepted 21 November 2013 Academic Editors: R. Pedicini and P. Pei Copyright © 2013 Xiuli Zhao et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. he idea of aggregating information is clearly recognizable in the daily lives of all entities whether as individuals or as a group, since time immemorial corporate organizations, governments, and individuals as economic agents aggregate information to formulate decisions. Energy planning represents an investment-decision problem where information needs to be aggregated from credible sources to predict both demand and supply of energy. To do this there are varying methods ranging from the use of portfolio theory to managing risk and maximizing portfolio performance under a variety of unpredictable economic outcomes. he future demand for energy and need to use solar energy in order to avoid future energy crisis in Jiangsu province in China require energy planners in the province to abandon their reliance on traditional, “least-cost,” and stand-alone technology cost estimates and instead evaluate conventional and renewable energy supply on the basis of a hybrid of optimization models in order to ensure efective and reliable supply. Our task in this research is to propose measures towards addressing optimal solar energy forecasting by employing a systematic optimization approach based on a hybrid of weather and energy forecast models. Ater giving an overview of the sustainable energy issues in China, we have reviewed and classiied the various models that existing studies have used to predict the inluences of the weather inluences and the output of solar energy production units. Further, we evaluate the performance of an exemplary ensemble model which combines the forecast output of two popular statistical prediction methods using a dynamic weighting factor. 1. Introduction China as a growing economy has high demand for electricity and nonrenewable sources of energy have been documented to have low capacity for supporting future social and eco- nomic development of China [1]. here is high future demand for energy and a need to explore sustainable alternatives such as the use solar energy in order to avoid future Chinese energy crisis. According to Yang [2] the conceptualization of renewable energy and its sustainability form the foundation of emerging agendas on the future sources and use of energy and energy planning in China as a whole. Solar power, wind power, thermal power, hydropower, and nuclear power are categorized as renewable energy. From sustainability perspective, diferent sources of power have diferent life cycle costs, which further contribute to the diferences in prioritization of the diferent renewable power sources [3], although life cycle costs of nuclear power may be lower compared to life cycle costs of solar power and wind power, for example, nuclear plants are exposed to risks of nuclear and radiation emissions that have negative long term impacts on the plants and animals. Solar power has advantage of lower maintenance costs over a long period of time [4]. In China, the alignment of sustainability goals and contri- bution to socioeconomic development recognize solar power to have the lowest forms of environmental pollution and the lowest level of carbon footprint. For this reason solar power is perceived to be more competitive in China and more research and development have been targeted at improving innovation of solar power in China (at least with the last half of the century) [5]. Apart from its superiority in environmental sustainability goals, solar energy has a higher capacity to