Evaluation of Solar and Meteorological Data Relevant to Solar Energy Technology Performance in Malaysia

Solar technology policy, development, and deployment require information related to meteorology and solar radiation to optimize technology selection and performance. As a tropical country, Malaysia has significant solar resources but a very limited radiation monitoring network. Meteorological data are available in more locations, but published analyses of these data are also limited. This paper presents an analysis of recent meteorological and radiation data in Malaysia as relevant to understanding solar technology performance. To compare differences between locations, yearly daily means of key meteorological parameters, global solar radiation (total radiation on the ground), and particulate air pollution were derived for 3-12 years, depending on the data availability. Annual mean global solar radiation values range from 3.73 to 5.11 kWh/(m2d) in the eight cities with monitors. The analysis also used neural network techniques to evaluate the potential for using the key variables of temperature, humidity, wind speed, rainfall, cloud cover, latitude, longitude, and particle pollution to estimate global solar radiation at various locations and seasons. Prediction on a monthly basis indicated a slight under-prediction of the model during the rainy season and a slight over-prediction during the dryer months, confirming that global solar radiation values depended strongly on rainfall.