Solar resources estimation combining digital terrain models and satellite images techniques

J.L. Bosch, F.J. Batlles, L.F. Zarzalejo and G. López

Renewable Energy, 2010, vol. 35, issue 12, 2853-2861

Abstract: One of the most important steps to make use of any renewable energy is to perform an accurate estimation of the resource that has to be exploited. In the designing process of both active and passive solar energy systems, radiation data is required for the site, with proper spatial resolution. Generally, a radiometric stations network is used in this evaluation, but when they are too dispersed or not available for the study area, satellite images can be utilized as indirect solar radiation measurements. Although satellite images cover wide areas with a good acquisition frequency they usually have a poor spatial resolution limited by the size of the image pixel, and irradiation must be interpolated to evaluate solar irradiation at a sub-pixel scale. When pixels are located in flat and homogeneous areas, correlation of solar irradiation is relatively high, and classic interpolation can provide a good estimation. However, in complex topography zones, data interpolation is not adequate and the use of Digital Terrain Model (DTM) information can be helpful. In this work, daily solar irradiation is estimated for a wide mountainous area using a combination of Meteosat satellite images and a DTM, with the advantage of avoiding the necessity of ground measurements. This methodology utilizes a modified Heliosat-2 model, and applies for all sky conditions; it also introduces a horizon calculation of the DTM points and accounts for the effect of snow covers. Model performance has been evaluated against data measured in 12 radiometric stations, with results in terms of the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 10%, and a Mean Bias Error (MBE) of +2%, both expressed as a percentage of the mean value measured.

Keywords: Meteosat; Digital terrain model; Solar resources; Heliosat-2; Complex topography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148110002296
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:renene:v:35:y:2010:i:12:p:2853-2861

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2010.05.011

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

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