Abstract
In this study, the performance of three global solar radiation models and the accuracy of global solar radiation data derived from three sources were compared. Twenty-two years (1984–2005) of surface meteorological data consisting of monthly mean daily sunshine duration, minimum and maximum temperatures, and global solar radiation collected from the Nigerian Meteorological (NIMET) Agency, Oshodi, Lagos, and the National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA) for three locations in North-Western region of Nigeria were used. A new model incorporating Garcia model into Angstrom-Prescott model was proposed for estimating global radiation in Nigeria. The performances of the models used were determined by using mean bias error (MBE), mean percentage error (MPE), root mean square error (RMSE), and coefficient of determination (R2). Based on the statistical error indices, the proposed model was found to have the best accuracy with the least RMSE values (0.376 for Sokoto, 0.463 for Kaduna, and 0.449 for Kano) and highest coefficient of determination,R2values of 0.922, 0.938, and 0.961 for Sokoto, Kano, and Kaduna, respectively. Also, the comparative study result indicates that the estimated global radiation from the proposed model has a better error range and fits the ground measured data better than the satellite-derived data.
Highlights
Solar radiation is the most important source of energy on earth because it plays a major role in sustaining all the activities and processes that support life of both plants and animals on earth
The twenty-two years’ (1984–2005) meteorological data consisting of monthly mean daily sunshine duration, minimum and maximum temperatures, and global solar radiation used for this study were collected from two data sources: the Nigerian Meteorological (NIMET) Agency, Oshodi, Lagos, and the archives of the National Aeronautics Space Agency (NASA)
Garcia model was incorporated into AngstromPrescott model to form a new model in the form: H = a + b ( S ) + c ( ΔT )
Summary
Solar radiation is the most important source of energy on earth because it plays a major role in sustaining all the activities and processes that support life of both plants and animals on earth. One of the ways of getting accurate and reliable global solar radiation data for solar energy system design is by ground measurements at the site of interest. Ground measurements are typically pin point measurements which are temporally integrated. This involves installation of solar sensor such as pyranometer for continuous, long-term measurements of solar data. Ground measure data are said to be accurate and reliable, the cost implication and technicality involved have made such data unavailable in many locations. This has led to the search for alternative means of getting solar data for research and development of solar energy systems
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