Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications M
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Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications M. Sengupta,1 A. Habte,1 S. Kurtz,1 A. Dobos,1 S. Wilbert,2 E. Lorenz,3 T. Stoffel,4 D. Renné,5 C. Gueymard,6 D. Myers,7 S. Wilcox,4 P. Blanc,8 and R. Perez9 1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2 German Aerospace Center 3 University of Oldenburg 4 Solar Resource Solutions, LLC 5 International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme 6 Solar Consulting Services 7 National Renewable Energy Laboratory—Retired 8 Mines ParisTech 9 State University of New York at Albany This update was prepared in collaboration with International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Task 36 and Task 46 NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. Technical Report NREL/TP-5D00-63112 February 2015 Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data for Solar Energy Applications M. Sengupta,1 A. Habte,1 S. Kurtz,1 A. Dobos,1 S. Wilbert,2 E. Lorenz,3 T. Stoffel,4 D. Renné,5 C. Gueymard,6 D. Myers,7 S. Wilcox,4 P. Blanc,8 and R. Perez9 1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory 2 German Aerospace Center 3 University of Oldenburg 4 Solar Resource Solutions, LLC 5 International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme 6 Solar Consulting Services 7 National Renewable Energy Laboratory—Retired 8 Mines ParisTech 9 State University of New York at Albany This update was prepared in collaboration with International Energy Agency Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Task 36 and Task 46 Prepared under Task No. SS13.3532 NREL is a national laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Operated by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. National Renewable Energy Laboratory Technical Report 15013 Denver West Parkway NREL/TP-5D00-63112 Golden, CO 80401 February 2015 303-275-3000 • www.nrel.gov Contract No. DE-AC36-08GO28308 NOTICE This report was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States government. Neither the United States government nor any agency thereof, nor any of their employees, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States government or any agency thereof. This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. Available electronically at http://www.osti.gov/scitech Available for a processing fee to U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors, in paper, from: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information P.O. Box 62 Oak Ridge, TN 37831-0062 phone: 865.576.8401 fax: 865.576.5728 email: mailto:[email protected] Available for sale to the public, in paper, from: U.S. Department of Commerce National Technical Information Service 5285 Port Royal Road Springfield, VA 22161 phone: 800.553.6847 fax: 703.605.6900 email: [email protected] online ordering: http://www.ntis.gov/help/ordermethods.aspx Cover Photos: (left to right) photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 16416, photo from SunEdison, NREL 17423, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 16560, photo by Dennis Schroeder, NREL 17613, photo by Dean Armstrong, NREL 17436, photo by Pat Corkery, NREL 17721. NREL prints on paper that contains recycled content. Foreword The first version of this handbook was developed in response to a growing need by the solar energy industry for a single document addressing the key aspects of solar resource characterization. The solar energy industry has developed rapidly throughout the last few years, and there have been significant enhancements in the body of knowledge in the areas of solar resource assessment and forecasting. Thus, this second version of the handbook was developed from the need to update and enhance the initial version and present the state of the art in a condensed form for all of its users. Although the first version of this handbook was developed by only researchers from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, this version has additional contributions from an international group of experts primarily from the knowledge that has been gained through participation in the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme Task 36 and Task 46. As in the first version, this material was assembled by scientists and engineers who have many decades of combined experience in atmospheric science, radiometry, meteorological data processing, and renewable energy technology development. Readers are encouraged to provide feedback to the authors for future revisions and an expansion of the handbook’s scope and content. iii This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. Preface As the world looks for low-carbon sources of energy, solar power stands out as the single most abundant energy resource on Earth. Harnessing this energy is the challenge for this century. Photovoltaics, solar heating and cooling, and concentrating solar power (CSP) are primary forms of energy applications using sunlight. These solar energy systems use different technologies, collect different fractions of the solar resource, and have different siting requirements and production capabilities. Reliable information about the solar resource is required for every solar energy application. This holds true for small installations on a rooftop as well as for large solar power plants. However, solar resource information is of particular interest for large installations, because they require a substantial investment, sometimes exceeding $1 billion in construction costs. Before such a project is undertaken, the best possible information about the quality and reliability of the fuel source must be made available. That is, project developers need to have reliable data about the solar resource available at specific locations, including historic trends with seasonal, daily, hourly, and (preferably) subhourly variability to predict the daily and annual performance of a proposed power plant. Without this data, an accurate financial analysis is not possible. In September 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hosted a meeting of prominent CSP developers and stakeholders. One purpose was to identify areas in which the DOE’s CSP program should focus its efforts to help the industry develop and deploy projects. At the top of the priority list was the need to provide high-quality solar resource data and recommend to industry the best way to use these data for site selection and estimating power plant performance. The direct result was the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) first edition of Concentrating Solar Power: Best Practices Handbook for the Collection and Use of Solar Resource Data. The content was based on the experiences of scientists and engineers from industry, academia, and DOE for identifying the sources, quality, and methods for applying solar and meteorological data to CSP projects. The International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) Solar Heating and Cooling Programme (SHC) Task 36 on solar resource knowledge management and Task 46 on solar resource assessment and forecasting brought together the world’s foremost experts in solar energy meteorology. This group of experts felt the need to create a collective document to disseminate the knowledge that was being developed through these tasks. It was decided that combining the efforts of the experts involved in the IEA task to build on the information in NREL’s first version of this handbook would provide the best use of resources and deliver a handbook of outstanding quality to users. It was also decided that additional solar technologies, such as photovoltaics, would be incorporated along with additional aspects of energy meteorology that have become extremely important, such as solar forecasting. This expanded version of the handbook presents detailed information about solar resource data and the resulting data products needed for each stage of a solar energy project, from initial site selection to systems operations. It also contains a summary of solar forecasting and its development throughout the last few years. This handbook is not meant to be read from cover to cover, but to be used as a reference during each project stage. The figure below lists these stages and shows which chapters contain information about the corresponding available data and resulting products. iv This report is available at no cost from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) at www.nrel.gov/publications. DOE’s Solar Energy Technology Office, project developers, engineering procurement construction firms, utility companies, system operators, energy suppliers, financial investors, and others involved in solar energy systems planning and development will find this handbook to be a valuable resource for the collection and interpretation of solar resource data. Further, this report serves as the final deliverable for the IEA SHC Task 36 on solar resource knowledge management, which ended in June 2011, and as an interim deliverable for the ongoing Task 46 on solar resource assessment and forecasting. As stated above, this report contains research findings from a number of experts from around the world who participated in Task 36 and are currently participating in Task 46.