The generation of a “typical meteorological year” for the city of Athens

Abstract

In recent years, the evaluation of the efficiency of the performance of solar energy units is not done by using long-term averages of weather data as input but preferably by using data sets representative of the climatological features of the site that are generated for this purpose. Such data sets, which are usually called “Test Reference Year” or “Short Reference Year,” consist mainly of solar radiation data, but they may also include other meteorological data, like temperature wind velocity etc, which may affect the response of the units. In this article, an attempt is made for the generation of such a representative data set for the city of Athens mainly by following a method that has been proposed by Hall et al. This data set, which includes global solar radiation data and six other meteorological parameters referring to temperature, dew point, and wind velocity, has been characterized by Hall as a “Typical Meteorological Year.”