A structural depth network embedding stacking model based on Moran’s index and seasonal trend for short-term solar irradiance prediction

•A LDNE-stacking integration fusion spatio-temporal feature multi-step prediction model is proposed. It shows excellent predictive performance in spatio-temporal prediction.•Moran index is used to measure the clustering relationship and significant level between solar irradiance and spatial feature variables. It is a novel way to model spatial correlation.•Embedding the structured LSTM deep network into the Stacking model.•Comparing ten different models, including LSTM, CNN-LSTM and traditional integrated models. Solar irradiance prediction of multi-station is influenced by complex spatial characteristics and temporal fluctuations, so how to obtain accurate short-term irradiance prediction by using photovoltaic cluster data becomes a challenge. In order to address the challenge, a structural depth network embedding stacking model based on Moran’s I and seasonal trend for short-term solar irradiance prediction is proposed. Firstly, the deep spatial characteristics of photovoltaic clusters are analyzed by using bivariate Moran index to capture strong correlations between stations. Secondly, seasonal trend decomposition is used to smooth the seasonal factors in time series, and Complete Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition with Adaptive Noise is used to decompose the residual components to reduce the fluctuation of signals and the complexity of data feature mapping. Finally, based on the Stacking framework, Long Short-term Memory Network, Least Absolute Selection and Shrinkage Operator, Gradient Boosted Decision Tree, and Artificial Neural Network are superimposed. And the aggregated sub-modal components are introduced into the robust integration model to predict the solar irradiance in multiple steps. Through the case study of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory open-source dataset in the United States, the conclusions are as follows: (1) The spatio-temporal method in this paper can effectively extract the deep spatial characteristics of photovoltaic stations. (2) The fusion strategy of embedded structured deep network effectively improves the stacking effect. (3) Comparing with many classical forecasting models, it shows that this method can effectively improve the forecasting effect.