The enerMENA meteorological network – Solar radiation measurements in the MENA region

For solar resource assessment of solar power plants and adjustment of satellite data, high accuracy measurement data of irradiance and ancillary meteorological data is needed. For the MENA region (Middle East and Northern Africa), which is of high importance for concentrating solar power applications, so far merely 2 publicly available ground measurement stations existed (BSRN network). This gap has been filled by ten stations in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan. In this publication the data quality is analyzed by evaluating data completeness and the cleanliness of irradiance sensors in comparison for all of the stations. The pyrheliometers have an average cleanliness of 99.2 % for week-daily cleaning. This is a 5 times higher effort than for Rotating Shadowband Irradiometer (RSI) stations which even have a slightly higher average cleanliness of 99.3 % for weekly cleaning. Furthermore, RSI stations show a data completeness of 99.4 % compared to 93.6 % at the stations equipped with thermal sensors. The results of this analysis are used to derive conclusions concerning instrument choice and are hence also applicable to other solar radiation measurements outside the enerMENA network. It turns out that RSIs are the more reliable and robust choice in cases of high soiling, rare station visits for cleaning and maintenance, as usual in desert sites. Furthermore, annual direct normal and global horizontal irradiation as well as average meteorological parameters are calculated for all of the stations.