Investigating the effect of solar modelling using different solar irradiation data sets/sources within South Africa

When designing a solar energy system, accurate solar data for the specific site in which one plans to install the system is required to accurately determine the sizing of the system components based on the available amount of energy. Both the source of the data and the method used for measuring the solar irradiation data are key. This paper specifically deals with the modelling of an off grid photovoltaic power supply system using three different sources of solar irradiation data for two specific geographical locations within South Africa. The paper then goes on to investigate the financial implications in terms of using free solar irradiation data which is available to the public versus accurate ground measured data for a specific site and how it affects the systems component sizing.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Electrical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2011

Author dc:creator

• Dekker, Justin

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Chowdhury, SP
• Chowdhury, S

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10332

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10332