The Importance of Accurate Solar Data for Designing Solar Photovoltaic Systems—Case Studies in Spain

Mirian Jiménez-Torres, Catalina Rus-Casas, Lenin Guillermo Lemus-Zúiga and Leocadio Hontoria
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Mirian Jiménez-Torres: Electronic Engineering and Automatic Department, University of Jaén Las Lagunillas Campus, A3 Building, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Catalina Rus-Casas: Electronic Engineering and Automatic Department, University of Jaén Las Lagunillas Campus, A3 Building, 23071 Jaén, Spain
Lenin Guillermo Lemus-Zúiga: Instituto de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain
Leocadio Hontoria: Electronic Engineering and Automatic Department, University of Jaén Las Lagunillas Campus, A3 Building, 23071 Jaén, Spain

Sustainability, 2017, vol. 9, issue 2, 1-14

Abstract: Renewable energies have experienced a great growth in recent years, and nowadays participate in the set of energies used in developed and developing countries to produce electricity. Among these technologies, photovoltaic energy, which produces clean electricity from the Sun, is the one that has grown faster, and its implementation all over the world is a guarantee of a solid and efficient energy technology. Nevertheless, in order to design very efficient solar energy systems, it is crucial to have a good solar radiation database. There are databases where it is possible to find information on solar radiation, but only for horizontal surfaces. Afterwards, it is necessary to transform the horizontal solar radiation data to tilt solar radiation data. This transformation is not easy, and the application of complex mathematical equations, and expressions, and difficult algorithms must be done. An application called virtual laboratory “OrientSol 3.0” which allows the user to easily obtain the solar radiation for any tilt surface has been developed by us. Thus, our main objectives in this paper are to present the developed virtual laboratory and to explain its main features and core functionalities. In order to point out the difficulties and complexity of the transformation of horizontal solar radiation data to tilt solar radiation data, we will present some examples of the results this application provides and compare the solar radiation data supplied with this application with some other solar radiation data obtained from other databases.

Keywords: solar radiation; solar photovoltaic system; energy harvesting; generated energy; transformation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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