A new modelling approach intended to develop maps of annual solar irradiation and comparative study using satellite data of Algeria M. R. Yaiche, A. Bouhanik, S. M. A. Bekkouche, and T. Benouaz Citation: Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 8, 043702 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4958993 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4958993 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jrse/8/4?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing Articles you may be interested in A new high- and low-frequency scattering parameterization for cirrus and its impact on a high-resolution numerical weather prediction model AIP Conf. Proc. 1531, 716 (2013); 10.1063/1.4804870 A semi-empirical model for estimating surface solar radiation from satellite data AIP Conf. Proc. 1531, 324 (2013); 10.1063/1.4804772 Diagnosis and improvement of cloud parameterization schemes in NCEP/GFS using multiple satellite products AIP Conf. 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Benouaz3 1Centre de Developement des Energies Renouvelable CDER, Route de l’observatoire, Bouzareah, 16340 Algiers, Algeria 2Unite de Recherche Appliquee en Energies Renouvelables, URAER, Centre de Developpement des Energies Renouvelables, CDER, 47133 Gharda€ıa, Algeria 3Laboratory of Automatic, University of Tlemcen, BP. 119, R.p. 13000 Tlemcen, Algeria (Received 30 October 2015; accepted 2 July 2016; published online 15 July 2016) Solar irradiation is the main potential energy source used in various processes. An accurate estimation of solar irradiation becomes a challenge due to the unavailability of weather data in Algeria. Therefore, an operated model can offer an important alternative for calculating the solar irradiation including the minimum of the input data. The present study derives a simple model from a review of our previously published work. It aims to develop a new approach for the estimation of the global irradiation on the horizontal plane only based on the measured sunshine duration. Maps of solar energy are required by many system designs; for this reason, it is mandatory to draw the global solar irradiation maps for Algeria for all types of sky. Algebraic relative errors were used as indicators of the agreement between the experimental and the calculated global irradiation. It has been proved that the highest intensity of the solar irradiation is located around the area of Djanet and Tamanrasset, whereas the less intense area extends from Skikda zone to Annaba, and more exactly in around 7 longitude. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4958993] I. INTRODUCTION Solar irradiation research is an interesting field due to its various applications in the solar field. It is worthy to mention that in many different areas of the world, the most commonly en- countered examples are: solar thermal power plant, thermal engineering for buildings, solar electric power generation, solar lighting and solar pumping systems. The optimum start-up of these installations is directly connected to the ideal choice of the solar field location, which plays a crucial role for the success of these technologies. However, solar resource assessment is the difficult task, faced by all the fields of the solar industry, either photovoltaic or thermal so- lar. In some industrial and commercial fields, solar energy applications require an accurate esti- mation of solar irradiation using various climatic parameters.1 Climate conditions in Algeria are favourable for the development of solar energy due to the abundant sunshine throughout the year, especially in the Sahara region.2 As a first approximation, the intensity of the direct irradiation evolves during the passage through the atmosphere as a decreasing exponential atmospheric mass. In fact, this law is rea- sonably checked if each irradiation wavelength will be taken separately. To determine the solar irradiation relative to an atmosphere, it remains to introduce a parameter named Linke turbidity factor that is related to the sunshine duration.3–5 a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: [email protected]. Present address: URAER, B.P. 88, ZI, Gart Taam, Gharda€ıa 47000, Algeria. Tel.: 213 661 31 76 29. Fax: 213 29 87 01 52. 1941-7012/2016/8(4)/043702/18/$30.008, 043702-1 Published by AIP Publishing. Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions. Downloaded to IP: 105.98.15.74 On: Fri, 15 Jul 2016 20:30:36 043702-2 Yaiche et al. J. Renewable Sustainable Energy 8, 043702 (2016) The intensity of the solar irradiation at a given location depends on the latitude, terrain, sea- son, time of day, and atmospheric conditions. A literature review on relevant research works conducted to conclude that several techniques have been developed to estimate solar irradiation from the measured sunshine duration data. Estimation of global solar irradiation from sunshine duration is a common procedure used in solar energy engineering. The results obtained in Ref. 6 show the useful relationship of solar maps for concentrating solar power and for grid-connected photovoltaic technology in Vietnam. In the same context, Park et al.7 conducted a study on the spatial distribution of solar irradiation in South Korea, an empirical model is developed to calcu- late the solar irradiation from topographic characteristics and sunshine durations data. However, Behar et al.8 have introduced an additional accuracy factor for predicting solar irradiation in Algeria, this method provides satisfactory results and was considered as one of the most suitable for estimating the global solar irradiation. Another relevant work carried out by Chelbi et al.,9 shows the utility of linear and nonlinear regression models for the calculation of the monthly and annual mean daily global solar irradiation in Tunisia. They found that by approaching the south, it reaches maximum values in the vicinity of the Gulf of Gabes. After that, Mecibah el al.10 have devoted a part of their research work to indicate the excellent fitting between the glob- al solar irradiation and sunshine duration. They have been selected and generalized a best model for global solar irradiation estimation on a horizontal surface for solar applications usages in the absence of the measured solar data. Indeed, Messen has drawn descriptive maps of Algeria from the computed solar irradiations. The study shows that the annual average solar irradiation is more marked by the astronomical factors whereas the monthly irradiation is rather dependent on the meteorological phenomena.11 Another paper12 provides an investigational study to estimate the solar irradiation by an another empirical model based on a soft computing technique, named support vector regression. As expected in Refs. 13–19, in order to inspect the effective correla- tion of solar irradiation, a series of simulations were performed and several factors were studied such as the relationship between direct and anisotropic diffuse irradiation and the apparent radi- ance of cloud. This contribution is an extension of different relevant works published last year, attempted to draw global solar irradiation maps for Algeria for all types of sky. The incident solar irradia- tion on a horizontal surface was determined using a new modelling approach based only on the measured sunshine duration. The originality of this work is the calculation of the solar radiation received on a horizontal surface for clear skies without calculating the direct and diffuse solar radiation (new approach). The adopted approach for determining cloud cover according to the insolation fraction “to calculate the global solar radiation received on a horizontal surface for different types of sky” is a simple method that allows anyone to draw solar map of his own country, even if the country belongs to the Northern hemisphere. The predicted results will be compared to the measured data in the goal to validate the modelling approach, once validated, these data can then be used to draw the solar map covering the entire Algerian territory. II. ESTIMATION OF GLOBAL SOLAR IRRADIATION UNDER CLEAR-SKY This section is devoted to the determination of the solar irradiation in various provinces of Algeria, officially the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria. It is a country in Northern Africa on the Mediterranean coast. Algeria ranges in latitude from 18.96 to 37.09 north, and in longitude from 8.68 west to 11.95 east. Its capital and most populous city is Algiers. It consists of 48 provinces and 1541 communes. With a population exceeding 37 million, it is the 34th most populated country on Earth.20 The Algerian climate is influenced by two preponder- ant seasonal factors. The first factor concerns the important solar irradiation on a great part of the country which leads to a thermal depression in the desert zone. The second factor is related to the intertropical front which creates an edge of nebulosity at the south of the country when this front goes up northwards.21 Referring to its geographical situation, Algeria is located in the highest solar reservoir region in the world. The insolation time over the quasi-totality of the na- tional territory exceeds 2000 h annually and may reach 3900 h (high plains and Sahara).