Unveiling the solar resource potential for photovoltaic applications in Mauritius

Abstract

Mauritius is considered to have high solar resource potential but it has not yet been fully quantified and exploited due to the lack of valid solar energy data. This paper unveils the solar potential of Mauritius. Ground-based measurements were performed at intervals of 30 s in order to obtain accurate global horizontal irradiance data which can depict all changes in solar power. The latter is used to evaluate average monthly global horizontal irradiance, maximum irradiance, monthly average insolation and monthly sky clearness index. A solar geometry model was used to define the average monthly, seasonal and yearly maximum elevations and extraterrestrial radiation. Measurement data were compared to Meteonorm and NASA SSE 3-hourly averaged solar data. Comparison shows that average irradiance values are in good agreement, whereas insolation and sky clearness values obtained from external sources are inferior to high quality measurement data. The results, presented in this paper, complement solar data of Meteonorm and NASA SSE and secondly, provides PV and solar engineers as well as scientists with highly valuable information on the solar resource of Mauritius that can be used during planning and design of PV systems as well as for conducting further research in Mauritius and surrounding regions.