Abstract

AMILLO, Ana Gracia; NTSANGWANE, Lucky; HULD, Thomas  and  TRENTMANN, Jörg. Comparison of satellite-retrieved high-resolution solar radiation datasets for South Africa. J. energy South. Afr. [online]. 2018, vol.29, n.2, pp.63-76. ISSN 2413-3051.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2413-3051/2017/v29i2a3376.

This study compares the performance of two satellite-based solar radiation methodologies for estimating the solar resource available in South Africa. Data from thirteen stations distributed in six climatic regions were considered. More than one year of hourly values of global horizontal and beam normal irradiance were examined in the validation of the satellite-retrieved estimates at every location. The best satellite method resulted in an overall relative mean bias of 1.41 % for the global horizontal irradi-ance corresponding to almost 3 Wm^-2 and exhibited a relative mean bias of 2.85% for the beam normal irradiance estimation (about 7 Wm^-2). This satellite-based method was implemented into a geographical information system module, which contained high-resolution terrain data and allowed the effect of the surrounding topography on the estimation of the available solar resource to be considered. These estimates can, therefore, be used as input data for further analysis or applications. As an example, maps of the potential output that could be expected in South Africa from photovoltaic systems were created.

Keywords : satellite retrieved irradiance; global horizontal irradiance; beam normal irradiance; ground stations.

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