EN 301

Introduction of Renewable Energy

Technologies

Lecture‐09
Estimation of Solar Radiation

Prof. C.S. Solanki

Department of Energy Science and Engineering
chetanss@ese.iitb.ac.in

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 1

 Recap of the last lecture

 Various solar angles determining angle of

incidence on a collector

 Angle of incidence under specific conditions, like

horizontal surface, south facing surface, etc.

 Equation of time, Local apparent time

 Sunrise and sunset time, calculating day length

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 2

 In this lecture

 Estimation of solar radiation on

• global radiation on horizontal surface
• diffuse radiation on horizontal surface
• Global radiation on tilted surface

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 3

 Solar radiation geometry
Solid lines are Vertical
reference lines The parameters that can
affect the direction of light
θz reaching a surface ?

αa θ is affected by five parameters

θ
- Latitude of location (φ)
γ - Day of year (δ)
Normal to - Time of the day (w)
the plane - Inclination of surface (β)
South direction
(horizontal plane) - Orientation in horizontal plane (γ)

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 4

Estimation of solar radiation
at any given time, any location
 Measurement of Solar Radiation, and
Estimation of Solar Radiation

 Measurement of solar radiation is expensive

and time taking

 Models have been developed to estimate

solar radiation at given surface
- The accuracy of estimation of solar radiation
through model is important

6
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies
 Symbols Used
H
_ g/d - Daily global solar radiation on horizontal surface
Hg/d - Monthly averaged daily global solar radiation on
horizontal surface

H
_o -Daily extra-terrestrial global solar radiation
Ho -Monthly averaged extra-terrestrial global solar radiation

_Ig/d - Daily hourly solar radiation on horizontal surface

Ig/d - Monthly averaged hourly global solar radiation on
horizontal surface

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 7

 Estimating solar radiation empirically:
Global radiation
Estimation of monthly average global radiation
on horizontal surface
-- --
H ga  Sa 
--  a  b 
H oa  S max a 
Where,
Hga → monthly averaged daily global radiation on a horizontal surface
Hoa → monthly averaged extra-terrestrial solar radiation at horizontal
surface (at top of atmosphere)
Sa and Smax a → monthly averaged daily sunshine hours and maximum
possible daily sunshine hours (the day length) at a given location.
a and b → constant

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 8

 Values of constants a and b
Location a b
Ahmedabad, India 0.28 0.48
Atlanta, Gerorgia, USA 0.38 0.26
Brownsville, Texas, USA 0.35 0.31
Buuenos Aires, Argentina 0.26 0.50
Charleston, S. C., USA 0.48 0.09
• The values of
Bangalore, India 0.18 0.64 the constant
Hamburg, Germany 0.22 0.57 is empirically
Malange, Angola 0.34 0.34 obtained from
Miami, Florida, USA 0.42 0.22
known data
Nagpur, India 0.27 0.50
New Delhi, India 0.25 0.57
Nice, France 0.17 0.63
Pune, India 0.31 0.43
Rafah, Egypt 0.36 0.35 Ref: Lof J.A. et al, 1966
Stanleyville, Congo 0.28 0.39
Tamanrasset, Algeria 0.30 0.43
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 9
 Estimation of Extra-terrestrial solar
radiation – horizontal surface
Hoa is equal to Ho if calculated on following days of month;
January 17, February 16, March 16, April 15, May 15, June 11, July 17,
August 16, September 15, October 15, November 14 and December 10.
The monthly averaged daily solar extra-terrestrial radiation
H o  St  cos  dt
 360n 
H o  S 1  0.033 cos  *  ( sin  sin   cos  cos  cos  )dt
 365 
180
dt 
15
24  360n 
Ho  S 1  0.033 cos ( s sin  sin   cos  cos  sin  s )
  365 
S is in W/m2 the Ho will be W-Hour/m2
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 10
 Problem:
Estimate the monthly average daily global radiation on the
horizontal surface at Nagpur (21.06N, 79.03E) during month of
March if the average sunshine hours per day is 9.2. Assume
values for a=0.27 and b=0.50

H ga  Sa  Given: Φ, a, b, Sa
 a  b 
Required: δ, ωs, Smax,a, Hoa, n, S
H oa  S max a 

24  360n 
H o  H oa  S 1  0.033 cos ( s sin  sin   cos  cos  sin  s )
  365 

 360  cos s   tan  tan 

  23.34 sin  (284  75) 
 365  s  cos 1 ( tan  tan  )
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 11
 Solution:
On March 16, n=75
δ= ‐2.4177

 s  cos 1 ( tan 21.15 tan  2.4177)

 s  89.0640

Day length=11.8752 hr, Sunrise and sunset hours?

24  360 * 57 
Ho  1.367 * 36001  0.033 cos (1.5544 sin 21.15 sin  2.4177 
  365 
cos 21.15 cos 2.4177 sin 89.0640)

Ho=34140.2 kJ/m2‐day
Hga = 22442.46 kJ/m2‐day

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 12

 Monthly averaged daily Diffuse
radiation
for  s  81.4and 0.3  K T  0.8
 The monthly
averaged diffuse H da
 1.391  3.560 K T  4.189 K T2  2.137 KT3
radiation can be H ga
empirical given by for  s  81.4and 0.3  K T  0.8
many models, one H da
model is presented  1.311  3.022 K T  3.427 K T2  1.821K T3
H ga
here
Ref: Erbs et al., 1982
s = sunrise hour angle
KT = sky monthly averaged clearness index, = Hga / Hoa

Typically diffuse radiation is about 10 to 20% of the global radiation

on horizontal surface

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 13

 Monthly averaged daily Diffuse
radiation- horizontal surface
Studies on Indian solar radiation data
0.3  K T  0.7
H da
 1.411  1.696 K T
H ga
One other analysis presented following
H da
 1.354  1.570 K T
H ga
• KT = sky monthly averaged clearness index, = Hga / Hoa

• Typically diffuse radiation is about 10 to 20% of the global radiation

on horizontal surface
• Diffuse radiation component in India is larger than Europe
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 14
 Monthly averaged hourly Global
radiation
 The empirical correlation predicting monthly averaged hourly global
radiation at a location, is given by

Ig

I0
a  b cos  
Where,
Hg H0

a  0.409  0.5016 sin(  s  60 )

b  0.6609  0.4767 sin(  s  60 )
Ig  Monthly average of the hourly global radiation on a horizontal
surface (kJ/m2-h)
I 0  Monthly2average of the hourly global radiation on a horizontal
surface (kJ/m -h)
Ref: Collares-Pereira and Rabl
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 15
 Monthly averaged hourly Diffuse
radiation
 In the similar manner, empirical correlation Id I0
estimating monthly averaged hourly diffuse 
radiation at a location, is given by Hd H0
Ref: Liu and Jordan
 However, this correlation have shown poor agreement against
measured data. An improved relation suggested by Satyamurty
and Lahiri, is given by
Where ,
 
a '  0.4922   0.27 /( H d / H g ) , for 0.1  ( H d / H g )  0.7
 
Id

I0 ' '

a  b cos  or
 
a '  0.76   0.113 /( H d / H g ) , for 0.7  ( H d / H g )  0.9
Hd H0  
and
b '  2(1  a ' )(sin  s   s cos  s ) /( s  0.5 sin 2 s )

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 16

 Radiation on tilted south facing surface
Since, the solar radiation falling horizontal surface,
IT  I b  I d  I r
The solar radiation falling on tilted surface is given by

I T  I b rb  I d rd  ( I b  I d ) rr

Where, rb, rd, and rr are the tilt factors for beam, diffuse and
reflected radiations respectively

Radiation flux falling on tilted surface

Tilt Factor 
Radiation flux falling on horizontal surface

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 17

 Radiation on tilted south facing surface
Tilt factor for beam radiation on a tilted surface with slope β
Beam radiation flux falling on tilted surface
Tilt Factor 
Beam radiation flux falling on horizontal surface

• For a tilted surface facing south (=0°), angle of sunrays

cos   sin  sin(    )  cos  cos  cos(   )
• For horizontal surface (=0), angle of sunrays
cos   sin  sin   cos  cos  cos   cos  z
• Thus, tilt factor for beam radiation,
cos  sin  sin(    )  cos  cos  cos(   )
rb  
cos  z sin  sin   cos  cos  cos 
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 18
 Radiation on tilted south facing surface
Similarly, tilt factor for diffuse radiation
Diffuse radiation flux falling on tilted surface
Tilt Factor 
Diffuse radiation flux falling on horizontal surface

1  cos 
• Tilt factor for diffuse radiation, rd 
2
Since, (1+cosβ)/2 is the radiation shape factor for a tilted surface
w.r.t. sky
• assuming sky is an isotropic source of diffuse radiation,
• Its value depend on
 distribution of diffused radiation over the sky
 portion of the sky dome seen by the tilted surface
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 19
 Radiation on tilted south facing surface
Similarly, tilt factor for reflected radiation

 1  cos  
rr    
 2 

Where, ρ is the reflectivity of the ground, ranging from 0.1 to 0.2.

Since, (1+cosβ)/2 is the radiation shape factor for a tilted surface

w.r.t. sky. Thus, (1-cosβ)/2 is the radiation shape factor for the surface
w.r.t. surrounding ground.
Assuming that reflection of the beam and diffuse radiation falling on
the ground is diffuse and isotropic.

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 20

 Radiation on tilted south facing surface
Thus solar radiation flux on tilted surface

I T  I b rb  I d rd  ( I b  I d ) rr

I T  ( I g  I d ) rb  I d rd  I g rr Since , I g  I b  I d

I T  I d 
 rb  I d rd  rr
 1
I g  I g 
 Ig

This eqn. can be used to calculate hourly radiation falling on a

tilted surface, if value of ω is taken at the mid point of hour.
It can be used to calculate the monthly average hourly value I T  
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 21
 Radiation on tilted south facing surface

IT  I d  Id
 
 1   r b  rd  rr
Ig  Ig  Ig
Where, r b  rb on the representative day
r d  rd  (1  cos  ) / 2
r r  rr  (1  cos  ) / 2

Similarly, ratio of daily radiation falling on tilted surface to the daily

global radiation on the horizontal surface is given by,

H T  H d  Hd
 1 Rb  Rd  Rr
Hg   Hg  Hg
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 22
 Radiation on tilted south facing surface

H T  H d  H
 1 Rb  d Rd  Rr
H g  H g  Hg Ref: Liu and Jordan

For a south facing surface ( =0°)

 st sin  sin(    )  cos  cos  st cos(   )

Rb 
 s sin  sin   cos  cos  cos  s
1  cos   1  cos  
Rd  rd  & Rr  rr    
2  2 
Where, ωst and ωs are sunrise or the sunset hour angles (in rad) for
tilted and horizontal surfaces respectively.
© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 23
 Radiation on tilted south facing surface
Similarly, for monthly average daily radiation falling on tilted
surface can be calculated by following eqn.

HT  Hd  H
 1   Rb  d Rd  R r

Hg  Hg  Hg

Where, R b  Rb on the representative day

R d  Rd  (1  cos  ) / 2
R r  Rr  (1  cos  ) / 2

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 24

 Global Long-wave Radiation Map

© IIT Bombay, C.S. Solanki Introduction to Renewable Energy Technologies 25

Thank you for your attention

Chetan S. Solanki