The Holy Grail of Resource Assessment: Low Cost Ground-Based Measurements with Good Accuracy
Using performance data from some of the millions of installed photovoltaic (PV) modules with micro-inverters may afford the opportunity to provide ground-based solar resource data critical for developing PV projects. The method used back-solves for the direct normal irradiance (DNI) and the diffuse horizontal irradiance (DHI) from the micro-inverter ac production data. When the derived values of DNI and DHI were then used to model the performance of other PV systems, the annual mean bias deviations were within +/- 4%, and only 1% greater than when the PV performance was modeled using high quality irradiance measurements. An uncertainty analysis shows the method better suited for modeling PV performance than using satellite-based global horizontal irradiance.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1365702
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/PO-5J00-68669
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at the 2017 IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC-44), 25-30 June 2017, Washington, D.C.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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The Holy Grail of Resource Assessment: Low Cost Ground-Based Measurements with Good Accuracy
Photovoltaic system derived data for determining the solar resource and for modeling the performance of other photovoltaic systems