Reducing Uncertainties in Large-Scale Solar Resource Data: The Impact of Aerosols
Journal Article
·
· IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
- Solar Consulting Services, Colebrook, NH (United States)
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
This study examines the impact of various aerosol databases on the accuracy of irradiance predictions pertaining to the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) over the Americas. Compared to the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) space-borne observations, the various improvements that have been made to develop the SOLSUN aerosol database are described, using a monthly temporal resolution and a 4-km spatial resolution. Relative to MERRA-2, these improvements result in lower uncertainty in the solar irradiance components. The most recent version of the NSRDB now uses hourly MERRA-2 aerosol data with bias and elevation correction. This significantly improves the frequency distribution of hourly direct irradiance while having only a small impact on the annual solar resource, as suggested by the validation undertaken here at 12 control sites.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (EE-4S)
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1478618
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/JA--5D00-71597
- Journal Information:
- IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Journal Name: IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 8; ISSN 2156-3381
- Publisher:
- IEEECopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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