Cloud computing for energy requirement and solar potential assessment

Abstract

The objective of this research is to derive an approach for the assessment of solar potential using cloud computing for a better energy planning. This approach is used to calculate energy requirement and solar potential having precise prediction probability. The energy requirement has been calculated based on the inputs such as the number of fans, tube lights, and electric pump with their wattage and usage hours. The assessment of the solar potential is based on the input parameters such as Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), sunshine hours, India Meteorological Department (IMD) data, cloud cover, tilted irradiance, etc. It is executed by software developed in Eclipse IDE (Integrated Development Environment), an open-source toolkit. Perl script has been used to convert the GHI onto the tilted surface which efficiently quantifies the collected solar irradiance. The IMD data are used for predicting the number of cloudy and rainy days for further estimation of solar potential. Cloud computing is used in uploading of the software module on the cloud. Google App Engine is used to deploy project information on the cloud. It has been found that enough solar potential is available to install Solar Photovoltaic (SPV) modules at Meerpur, India using software tool developed.