Estimation of Hourly Solar Radiation on Horizontal and Inclined Surfaces in Western Himalayas

Shyam S. Chandel, Rajeev K. Aggarwal

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DOI: 10.4236/sgre.2011.21006                

Abstract

The hourly solar radiation data required for solar energy system design evaluation and performance studies is gener-ally not available for a number of sites especially in remote locations. As such accurate determination of hourly solar radiation data, is important both at horizontal; surfaces and inclined surfaces. A model to estimate global solar radiation using temperature and sunshine hour data has been developed (Chandel et al. [1]) which is used to calculate the hourly solar radiation Data. The hourly solar radiation has also been calculated using Gueymard [2] daily integration approach from the measured daily solar radiation data. These two predicted hourly solar radiation data values are compared with measured hourly values to test the accuracy of the models. The total solar radiation on the inclined surfaces and vertical surfaces for different orientations, have also been estimated. The estimated values are found to be in close agreement with measured values. The method presented can be used to estimate hourly, global, diffuse solar radiation for horizontal surfaces and total solar radiation on inclined and vertical surfaces at different orientations with greater accuracy for any location.

Keywords

Solar Energy, Hourly Solar Radiation, Diffuse Solar Radiation

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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