Comparison of daily diffuse radiation models in regions of China without solar radiation measurement

Liu Yang, Qimeng Cao, Ying Yu and Yan Liu

Energy, 2020, vol. 191, issue C

Abstract: Considering diffuse solar radiation is essential for thermal environment construction and solar energy applications. Due to lack of solar radiation measurement in China, developing appropriate models for data estimation is becoming more and more important. In areas that lack solar radiation measurement, using estimated global solar radiation values or extraterrestrial solar radiation is a key problem. In this study, data obtained between 2000 and 2017 from 17 stations were selected to develop and verify 18 diffuse solar radiation models and three global solar radiation models. The models were evaluated using the mean bias error, mean absolute bias error, root mean squared error, and Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient. The results showed that the diffuse fraction models based on measured and calculated global solar radiation performed better than diffuse coefficient models. Models containing both clearness index and relative sunshine duration and four parameters (clearness index, relative sunshine duration, mean air temperature and relative humidity) obtained the best performance among all of models. Choosing a precise and suitable global radiation model is essential for estimating daily diffuse radiation in areas without global radiation measurement, especially in areas with low clearness index. A simplified model based only on clearness index can be applied to calculate daily diffuse radiation in Northern China. In areas with lower clearness index and those in Southern China, global radiation models that include multiple parameters (clearness index, temperature difference, and atmospheric pressure) are the optimal options.

Keywords: Daily diffuse solar radiation; Daily global solar radiation; Clearness index; Sunshine duration; Extraterrestrial solar radiation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544219322662
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:191:y:2020:i:c:s0360544219322662

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2019.116571

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().