Abstract
We examine the impact of atmospheric aerosols and clouds on the surface solar radiation and solar energy at Nainital, a high-altitude remote location in the central Gangetic Himalayan region (CGHR). For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of remote-sensed data in terms of ground-based AERONET Sun Photometer and satellite observations from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), with radiative transfer model (RTM) simulations and 1 day forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). Clouds and aerosols are one of the most common sources of solar irradiance attenuation and hence causing performance issues in the photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) plant installations. The outputs of RTM results presented with high accuracy under clear, cloudy sky and dust conditions for global horizontal (GHI) and beam horizontal irradiance (BHI). On an annual basis the total aerosol attenuation was found to be up to 105 kWh m−2 for the GHI and 266 kWh m−2 for BHI, respectively, while the cloud effect is much stronger with an attenuation of 245 and 271 kWh m−2 on GHI and BHI. The results of this study will support the Indian solar energy producers and electricity handling entities in order to quantify the energy and financial losses due to cloud and aerosol presence.
Highlights
Renewable energy has drawn increasing attention in scientific research and had significant evolution over the last two decades [1,2,3,4,5]
Since aerosol absorbs and scatters the incoming solar irradiance in the visible (0.38–0.78 μm) spectrum, the solar energy which strikes the solar cell is subjected to loss in the absorption/reflection of the incoming irradiance. 30% of the total energy coming from the sun is either reflected or absorbed by the clouds, oceans, and landmasses [73]
The higher aerosol optical depth (AOD) can be attributed to the significant transport of dust from the western region [17,32,33,75], which is the largest arid region extending from the Thar Desert to the Saharan Desert, located in sub-tropical hot climatic conditions
Summary
Renewable energy has drawn increasing attention in scientific research and had significant evolution over the last two decades [1,2,3,4,5]. It has seen intense promotion by governments in many countries and produces an important share of the total energy production, focusing on the reduction both of the growing carbon dioxide emissions, and regional air pollution, carbonaceous aerosols from fossil fuel burning and anthropogenic activities [1,6,7,8,9,10]. Cloud presence is another key determining factor in determining
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