SolarGIS: New Web-Based Service Offering Solar Radiation Data and PV Simulation Tools for Europe, North Africa and Middle East

摘要

A new online service SolarGIS offers solar energy industry fast and easy access to solar radiation and air temperature data within Europe and the Mediterranean region. Geographical databases consist of high resolution solar radiation (global, diffuse and direct normal irradiance) and air temperature. Solar radiation database covers period 2004-2010, and is calculated from Meteosat MSG data using new high-performance algorithms. Derived solar parameters are calculated at a spatial resolution up 80 meters using new terrain disaggregation method and Digital Elevation Model SRTM-3. Air temperature database is calculated at spatial resolution of 1 km from ECMWF ERA Interim data source covering period 1991 to 2009. Access to the data is managed via a map based interface with geographical search functionality exploiting Google Maps API. This service offers to solar energy industry a unique and standardized access to primary and derived data available at various time scales - from yearly and monthly averages to daily, hourly and 15-minute values. Simulation tools enable calculating solar parameters and PV power potential for any fixed mounted or sun tracking solar energy system.