A STATISTICS-BASED METHOD FOR HOURLY SOLAR RADIATION ESTIMATION

A statistics-based method for hourly solar radiation estimation is introduced in the paper. On the basis of hourly extra-atmospheric horizontal solar radiation calculation, a statistical method is adopted to find out the relationship between solar radiation in normal direction and total solar radiation on extra-atmospheric horizontal, as well as the relationship between diffuse solar radiation and solar radiation in normal direction from typical meteorological year data. By these two relationships and other relative data found in hourly real meteorological year data, the hourly solar radiation data of real meteorological year can be calculated.