Estimation of Solar Irradiance Under Cloudy Weather Based on Solar Radiation Model and Ground-Based Cloud Image

Yisen Niu, Ying Su, Ping Tang, Qian Wang, Yong Sun and Jifeng Song ()
Additional contact information
Yisen Niu: School of New Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Ying Su: Institute of Science and Technology, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 100038, China
Ping Tang: School of New Energy, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
Qian Wang: Institute of Science and Technology, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 100038, China
Yong Sun: Institute of Science and Technology, China Three Gorges Corporation, Beijing 100038, China
Jifeng Song: Institute of Energy Power Innovation, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-21

Abstract: The estimation of solar radiation plays an important role in different fields such as heating, agriculture and energy. At present, most studies focus on clear-sky models; it is relatively difficult to quantify the obstruction of radiation by clouds, which makes the calculation of irradiance in cloudy weather more challenging. This paper proposes a method for calculating solar irradiance in cloudy weather, which consists of two parts: radiation and cloud. In the radiation part, clear-sky radiation and the distribution of all-sky irradiance under different haze conditions are studied. In the cloud part, a cloud transmittance model based on ground-based cloud images is studied. Then, combined with the radiation model, the calculation of Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) in cloudy weather is achieved. After testing, rRMSE of the clear-sky model for calculating Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and GHI is 4.48% and 5.62% respectively, the rRMSE of the all-sky model is 2.28%, and the rRMSE of the cloudy irradiance model is 16.74%.

Keywords: solar radiation; haze; all-sky irradiance distribution; cloudy weather; ground-based cloud images (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: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/3/757/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/3/757/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:3:p:757-:d:1585357

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().