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Investigation of the accuracy of historical irradiance products and interannual variability of solar irradiance using Met Office ground data

Burgess, P., Vahdati, M. and Essah, E. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1349-5167 (2015) Investigation of the accuracy of historical irradiance products and interannual variability of solar irradiance using Met Office ground data. IET Renewable Power Generation, 9 (5). pp. 405-411. ISSN 1752-1416

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2014.0386

Abstract/Summary

Met Office station data from 1980 to 2012 has been used to characterise the interannual variability of incident solar irradiance across the UK. The same data are used to evaluate four popular historical irradiance products to determine which are most suitable for use by the UK PV industry for site selection and system design. The study confirmed previous findings that interannual variability is typically 3–6% and weighted average probability of a particular percentage deviation from the mean at an average site in the UK was calculated. This weighted average showed that fewer than 2% of site-years could be expected to fall below 90% of the long-term site mean. The historical irradiance products were compared against Met Office station data from the input years of each product. This investigation has found that all products perform well. No products have a strong spatial trend. Meteonorm 7 is most conservative (MBE = −2.5%), CMSAF is most optimistic (MBE = +3.4%) and an average of all four products performs better than any one individual product (MBE = 0.3%)

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Centre for Technologies for Sustainable Built Environments (TSBE)
Interdisciplinary centres and themes > Energy Research
Science > School of the Built Environment > Energy and Environmental Engineering group
ID Code:40486
Publisher:The Institution of Engineering and Technology

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