Abstract: An accurate short-term wind speed prediction algorithm based on the efficient kernel ridge pseudo inverse neural network (KRPINN) variants is proposed in this paper. The use of nonlinear kernel functions in pseudo inverse neural networks eliminates the trial and error approach of choosing the number of hidden layer neurons and their activation functions. The robustness of the proposed method has been validated in comparison with other models such as pseudo inverse radial basis function (PIRBF) and Legendre tanh activation function based neural network, i.e., PILNNT, whose input weights to the hidden layer weights are optimized using an adaptive firefly algorithm, i.e., FFA. However, since the individual kernel functions based KRPINN may not be able to produce accurate forecasts under chaotically varying wind speed conditions, a linear combination of individual kernel functions is used to build the multi kernel ridge pseudo inverse neural network (MK-RPINN) for providing improved forecasting accuracy, generalization, and stability of the wind speed prediction model. Several case studies have been presented to validate the accuracy of the short-term wind speed prediction models using the real world wind speed data from a wind farm in the Wyoming State of USA over time horizons varying from 10 minutes to 5 hours.