Comparison of Modelled and Measured Tilted Solar Irradiance for Photovoltaic Applications

Riyad Mubarak, Martin Hofmann, Stefan Riechelmann and Gunther Seckmeyer
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Riyad Mubarak: Institute for Meteorology and Climatology, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Straße 2, 30419 Hannover, Germany
Martin Hofmann: Institute for Meteorology and Climatology, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Straße 2, 30419 Hannover, Germany
Stefan Riechelmann: Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig, Germany
Gunther Seckmeyer: Institute for Meteorology and Climatology, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Herrenhäuser Straße 2, 30419 Hannover, Germany

Energies, 2017, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-18

Abstract: This work assesses the performance of five transposition models that estimate the global and diffuse solar irradiance on tilted planes based on the global horizontal irradiance. The modelled tilted irradiance values are compared to measured one-minute values from pyranometers and silicon sensors tilted at different angles at Hannover (Germany) and NREL (Golden, CO, USA). It can be recognized that the deviations of the model of Liu and Jordan, Klucher and Perez from the measurements increases as the tilt angle increases and as the sensors are oriented away from the south direction, where they receive lower direct radiation than south-oriented surfaces. Accordingly, the vertical E, W and N planes show the highest deviation. Best results are found by the models from Hay and Davies and Reindl, when horizontal pyranometer measurements and a constant albedo value of 0.2 are used. The relative root mean squared difference (rRMSD) of the anisotropic models does not exceed 11% for south orientation and low inclination angles ( ? = 10–60°), but reaches up to 28.9% at vertical planes. For sunny locations such as Golden, the Perez model provides the best estimates of global tilted irradiance for south-facing surfaces. The relative mean absolute difference (rMAD) of the Perez model at NREL ranges from 4.2% for 40° tilt to 8.7% for 90° tilt angle, when horizontal pyranometer measurements and a measured albedo value are used; the use of measured albedo values instead of a constant value of 0.2 leads to a reduction of the deviation to 3.9% and 6.0%, respectively. The use of higher albedo values leads to a significant increase of rMAD. We also investigated the uncertainty resulting from using horizontal pyranometer measurements, in combination with constant albedo values, to estimate the incident irradiance on tilted photovoltaic (PV) modules. We found that these uncertainties are small or negligible.

Keywords: incident solar radiation; transposition models; isotropic models; anisotropic models; tilted surface (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (10)

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