Performance Evaluation of Temperature-Based Global Solar Radiation Models—Case Study: Arar City, KSA

Nejib Ghazouani, Abdulhakim Bawadekji, Alaa A. El-Bary, Mahmoud M. Elewa, Nidhal Becheikh, Yahya Alassaf and Gasser E. Hassan
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Nejib Ghazouani: College of Engineering, Northern Border University, Arar 73222, Saudi Arabia
Abdulhakim Bawadekji: College of Science, Northern Border University, Arar 73222, Saudi Arabia
Alaa A. El-Bary: College of Engineering and Technology, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Alexandria 1029, Egypt
Mahmoud M. Elewa: College of Engineering and Technology, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Alexandria 1029, Egypt
Nidhal Becheikh: College of Engineering, Northern Border University, Arar 73222, Saudi Arabia
Yahya Alassaf: College of Engineering, Northern Border University, Arar 73222, Saudi Arabia
Gasser E. Hassan: College of Engineering and Technology, Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport (AASTMT), Alexandria 1029, Egypt

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: Solar radiation is considered the main renewable energy source which reshapes the global sustainability plan for future development. Due to the lack of solar radiation measurements, this work investigates the performance of several temperature-based hybrid solar radiation models combining the parametric, statistical and satellite data approaches to estimate the global solar radiation on a horizontal surface. Over 35 years of meteorological data in the new location, Arar City, KSA (Latitude 30°96′ N and longitude 41°05′ E) are employed to establish and validate the models. These models are validated using two datasets with different averaging time spans to investigate the accuracy and reliability of different models as forecasting tools for the solar radiation. The mostly common statistical indicators are calculated to identify the most accurate model. The results show that Model (1) has the best performance among all models with high reliability as a solar radiation forecasting tool in this new location. This model is also validated against the widely-used datasets, namely NASA, On-Site measurements and PVGIS-SARAH data. The model shows excellent values for statistical indicators with high values of coefficient of determination, R 2 > 0.955, presenting the best performance regardless of the time span of the validation datasets.

Keywords: energy sustainability; empirical models; solar energy; solar radiation; statistical indicators; Arar City; KSA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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