Solar Radiation Resource Assessment Research Articles

Performance Modeling of the Weather Impact on a Utility-Scale PV Power Plant in a Tropical Region

Solar photovoltaics and the associated applications are now considered the most promising technologies for a sustainable future. The performance of the PV power plants is not studied in detail with respect to the influence of various weather parameters like rain, relative humidity, and atmospheric pressure on energy generation. The objective of this research work is to analyze and model the weather impact of a utility-scale PV power plant in a tropical region. The methodology involves the detailed analysis of the PV plant performance for various weather seasons and modeling the energy generation based on important weather parameters obtained from a Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) station installed at the PV power plant location itself. Solar generation and its performance are affected during the rainy seasons, and it turns out to be a typical phenomenon in the humid tropical region. A regression model of solar generation for all the weather seasons is generated based on different weather parameters.

A technical and economic study on solar-assisted ammonia-based post-combustion CO2 capture of power plant

The market of solar-assisted post-combustion CO2 capture (SPCC) is emerging globally in recent years. It is considered as a promising technology to apply the ammonia as the absorbent to implement the SPCC technology in view of its low regeneration temperature and low regeneration heat duty. However, few literatures indicate which type of solar thermal collectors (STCs) involved in the ammonia-based SPCC power plant is more applicable. Therefore, in this paper, the maximum theoretical potential price of STCs which make the value of the levelized costs of electricity (LCOE) and the cost of CO2 removed (COR) lower than that of the reference post-combustion CO2 capture (PCC) power plant is estimated. The potential of ammonia-based SPCC technology in the selected locations is also estimated, based on the detailed solar radiation resource assessment (i.e. DNI, sunshine time) and the STCs performance. It would be more attractive to adopt the vacuum tube (VT) as the STC involved into the ammonia-based PCC power plant to capture CO2 than parabolic trough collector (PTC). In order to achieve lower LCOE and COR than that of the reference PCC system, the price of the vacuum tube (VT) has to be reduced to 131.02$/m2, 91.76$/m2 and 57.10$/m2 for the location of M1(Lhasa), M2(Tianjin) and M3(Xi’an), respectively. And the price of the parabolic trough collector (PTC) has to be reduced to 139.09$/m2, 89.83$/m2 and 50.84$/m2, respectively.

Solmap: Project In India's Solar Resource Assessment

India launched Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission in 2009, which aims to set up 20 000 MW of grid connected solar power, besides 2 000 MW equivalent of off-grid applications and cumulative growth of solar thermal collector area to 20 million m2 by 2022. Availability of reliable and accurate solar radiation data is crucial to achieve the targets. As a result of this initiative, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of Government of India (GoI) has awarded a project to Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET), Chennai in the year 2011 to set up 51 Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) stations using the state-of-the-art equipment in various parts of the country, especially the sites with high potential for solar power. The GoI project has synergy with SolMap project, which is implemented by the Deutsche GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit (GIZ) in cooperation with the MNRE. SolMap project is contributing to SRRA project in establishing quality checks on the data obtained as per International protocols and helping data processing to generate investment grade data. The paper highlights the details of SRRA stations and an attempt has been made to present some of the important results of quality control and data analysis with respect to GHI and DNI. While our analysis of the data over one year finds that intensity and profile of the insolation are not uniform across the geographic regions, the variability in DNI is particularly high. Strong influence of monsoon is also identified. SRRA infrastructure aims to develop investment grade solar radiation resource information to assist project activities under the National Solar Mission of India.

Field Experiences with the Operation of Solar Radiation Resource Assessment Stations in India

World's largest DNI measurement network of 51 automatic meteorological stations with solar radiation instruments fulfilling the highest commercially available standards is operating in India. The Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in 2011 started this extensive solar resource monitoring cum meteorological station network under the Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) project. This paper highlights the overall performance of the stations over more than one year and documents the specific problems and errors observed in field operation. Following best practices quality assessment tests, a data flagging system to identify, differentiate and quantify different types of errors and other functionalities have been implemented as part of the SolMap project. The quality assessment tests check the plausibility of data, differentiate trustworthy data from likely erroneous data and flag them accordingly. The quality flag statistics of all 51 stations reveals that some stations are performing very well and others need more attention to improve. In the period from January 2012 to March 2013 on an average over all 51 stations, 92% of the solar radiation data are classified as correct. The quality control system has proven to be very effective for detecting errors in functionality of the stations. Values flagged erroneous along with missing values are considered as gaps. Many applications such as solar energy performance simulations need continuous time-series. Therefore it is required to fill the measurement gaps with reasonable data. This paper also describes a set of procedures called ‘basic gap filling’ for solar irradiance. The accuracy of the applied basic gap filling methodology is tested and the results show a mean bias of ca. 3% over GHI, DNI and DHI over all types of gaps. Automated alarms, sensor cleaning switch, bird protection cages for wind sensors etc. are some of the efforts SRRA took for smoother operation. Regular cleaning of the radiometers remains the most challenging task for the SRRA network.

Quality Check Procedures and Statistics for the Indian SRRA Solar Radiation Measurement Network

In the Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) project of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, India a network of 51 automatic solar radiation monitoring stations have been set up across India. Such a large number of high-quality solar radiation stations with sensitive instruments require efficient procedures for regularly controlling proper operation of each station, the quality of the measured data, and its overall performance. Following best practices for quality assessment tests, such routines are implemented at the SRRA archiving and processing center. Various quality control tests are applied that check the plausibility of data, differentiate trustworthy data from likely erroneous data and flag them accordingly. A data flagging system is implemented to identify, differentiate and quantify different types of errors. These quality-checked, flagged data are then used by routines to create monthly reports and data products. This paper describes the automated quality check system implemented and evaluates the performance of stations since their erection in 2011. This paper also describes first experiments to validate the functionality of the applied quality checks. The quality flag statistics of all 51 stations reveals that some stations are performing very well and others need more attention to improve. In the period from January 2012 to March 2013 on an average over all 51 stations, 92% of the solar radiation data are classified as correct. Around 4% of solar radiation data do not pass the coherence test. Tracking errors are observed during 0.3 % of the time averaged over all 51 stations. This analysis helps to further improve the operation of this network and find ways for better-automatized quality checks.

Evaluating the potential of concentrating solar power generation in Northwestern India

To accelerate the decarburization in the Indian power sector, concentrating solar power (CSP) needs to play an important role. CSP technologies have found significant space in the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) of the Indian government in which 20,000MW grid connected solar power projects have been targeted by 2022 with 50% capacity for CSP. In this study a preliminary attempt has been made to assess the potential of CSP generation in the Northwestern (NW) regions of India; which seems a high potential area as it has the highest annual solar radiation in India, favorable meteorological conditions for CSP and large amount of waste land. The potential of CSP systems in NW India is estimated on the basis of a detailed solar radiation and land resource assessment. The energy yield exercise has been carried out for the representative locations using System Advisor Model for four commercially available CSP technologies namely Parabolic Trough Collector (PTC), Central receiver system (CRS), Linear Fresnel Reflector (LFR) and Parabolic Dish System (PDS). The financial viability of CSP systems at different locations in NW India is also analyzed in this study.On the basis of a detailed solar radiation and land resource assessment, the maximum theoretical potential of CSP in NW India is estimated over 2000GW taking into accounts the viability of different CSP technologies and land suitability criteria. The technical potential is estimated over 1700GW at an annual direct normal incidence (DNI) over 1800kWh/m2 and finally, the economic potential is estimated over 700GW at an annual DNI over 2000kWh/m2 in NW India. It is expected that in near future locations with lower DNI values could also become financially feasible with the development of new technologies, advancement of materials, economy of scale, manufacturing capability along with the enhanced policy measures etc. With an annual DNI over 1600kWh/m2 it is possible to exploit over 2000GW CSP in the NW India.

Saudi Arabian solar radiation network operation data collection and quality assessment

From 1993 to the present (2000), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a joint solar radiation resource assessment project to upgrade the solar resource assessment capability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. KACST has deployed a high quality 12-station network in Saudi Arabia for monitoring solar total horizontal, direct beam, and diffuse radiation. One- and 5-min network data are collected and assessed for quality. 80% or more of the network data fall within quality limits of ±5% for correct partitioning between the three radiation components. We describe the network, quality assessment procedures, data formats and availability.

99/02583 Characterization of lithiated natural graphite before and after mild oxidation

From 1993 to the present (2000), King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a joint solar radiation resource assessment project to upgrade the solar resource assessment capability of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. KACST has deployed a high quality 12-station network in Saudi Arabia for monitoring solar total horizontal, direct beam, and diffuse radiation. One- and 5-min network data are collected and assessed for quality. 80% or more of the network data fall within quality limits of ±5% for correct partitioning between the three radiation components. We describe the network, quality assessment procedures, data formats and availability.

96/00604 Solar radiation resource assessment by means of silicon cells

96/00604 Solar radiation resource assessment by means of silicon cells

Solar radiation resource assessment by means of silicon cells

To provide an accurate solar resource assessment, radiometric stations measuring global, diffuse, and direct irradiance must be widespread. Nevertheless, the high capital costs of thermopile instruments, usually used in pyranometry, represent an important obstacle. Therefore, silicon photovoltaic sensors have emerged as a more accessible alternative than standard thermopile sensors. However, their temperature and spectral responses must be taken into account in order to match silicon cells and thermopile responses. Global and diffuse irradiance have been measured from early 1990 to the end of 1992 in Almería, southeastern Spain, by means of thermopile and photovoltaic sensor. Polar axis shadowbands were employed to measure the diffuse irradiance. These 10-minute coincident data sets, covering a complete range of atmospheric conditions, have been used to develop a correction procedure for the silicon detector measurements. Before the correction procedure was applied severe discrepancies were found, especially for the diffuse irradiance measurements performed under clear skies. Results of the correction method applied to an independent data set show a remarkable improvement. After correction, the comparison of silicon cell measurements with those obtained by means of thermopile pyranometers leads to a root mean square deviation of about 4% and 5% over the mean value of global and diffuse horizontal irradiance, respectively.

Estimates of uncertainty for measured spectra in the SERI spectral solar radiation data base

The Solar Energy Research Institute's (SERI) Solar Radiation Resource Assessment Project collected spectral solar irradiance data and coincident insolation and meterological data from October 1986 to May 1988. This article describes the methods used to derive the wavelength-dependent measurement uncertainty for each spectral scan (i.e., spectra). We list the sources of uncertainty in calibration and field measurements, and present summaries of the magnitudes for each. Finally, we show derived uncertainty envelopes, representative of the 21 combinations of instruments, measurement modes, and measurement periods used during the project. Our results indicate uncertainly of greater than ±20% for the ultraviolet (300 to 400 nm), +5% to − 13% in the visible (400 to 900 nm), and + 8% to − 15% in the near infrared (900 to 1100 nm). Complete details of the analysis summarized here are available in separate SERI technical reports detailing the data base, its structure; and the uncertainty analysis.

Insolation modeling overview

This paper gives a summary of some of the major national projects in the area of solar radiation resource assessment. It also discusses the primary solar radiation data sources for the U.S. and the models that were used in developing these sources. Recommendations for appropriate solar radiation resource information for various types of solar system design and analysis needs are given.