Volume 52

Assessment of Solar Irradiance Based on Sky Image Capturing and Near-ground Meteorology Measurements Shuhao Wang, Jinqing Peng

Abstract

Solar PV generation makes a great contribution to promoting renewable energy development. However, the unpredictable cloud cover makes PV generation to become unstable. This study developed a novel method to evaluate the cloud cover with sky images and subaerial meteorology parameters. The improved sun tracking model, RBR threshold model were combined to upgrade the simulation precision of cloud cover in the sky. Validation shows the developed method performs well under the different sky conditions. Furthermore, this study investigated the impact of the sky state and the near-ground visibility on solar irradiance. This study provides a thorough method for evaluating the cloud cover, which may instruct the industry to deal with instable solar irradiance under different sky states and prompt the solar PV application.

Keywords Cloud cover, Sky state evaluation, Solar irradiance, Visibility measurements