Hourly Global Horizontal Irradiance Over West Africa: Satellite- and Reanalysis-Derived Estimates vs. In Situ Measurements

41 Pages Posted: 3 Jul 2022

See all articles by sawadogo windmanagda

sawadogo windmanagda

affiliation not provided to SSRN

windmanagda sawadogo

University of Augsburg

Jan Bliefernicht

University of Augsburg

Benjamin Fersch

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Seyni Salack

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Samuel Guug

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Belko Diallo

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Kehinde.O. Ogunjobi

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Guillaume Nacoulma

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Michael Tanu

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Stefanie Meilinger

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Harald Kunstmann

University of Augsburg

Abstract

Estimates of global horizontal irradiance (GHI) from reanalysis and satellite-based data are the most important information for the design and monitoring of PV systems in Africa, but their quality is unknown due to the lack of in situ measurements. In this study, we evaluate the performance of hourly GHI from state-of-the-art reanalysis and satellite-based products (ERA5, CAMS, MERRA-2 and SARAH -2) with 51 quality-controlled in situ measurements from novel meteorological networks established in Burkina Faso and Ghana under different weather conditions. The effects of clouds and aerosols are also considered in the analysis by using common performance measures for the main quality attributes and a new overall performance value for the joint assessment. The results show that SARAH-2 performs better under cloudy sky (RMSE=237 W/m2 (24.51%)), clear sky (113 W/m2 (10.65%)) and all sky conditions (167 W/m2 (15.18%)), while ERA5 performs poorly under all sky conditions. The poor performance of all datasets under cloudy sky conditions is due to a large bias observed during the Harmattan period. The new measure of overall performance clearly shows that the hourly GHI derived from SARAH-2 is the best alternative for assessing solar energy in the different climatic zones of West Africa.

Keywords: solar energy, Global horizontal irradiance, Reanalysis, Satellite, West Africa

Suggested Citation

windmanagda, sawadogo and sawadogo, windmanagda and Bliefernicht, Jan and Fersch, Benjamin and Salack, Seyni and Guug, Samuel and Diallo, Belko and Ogunjobi, Kehinde.O. and Nacoulma, Guillaume and Tanu, Michael and Meilinger, Stefanie and Kunstmann, Harald, Hourly Global Horizontal Irradiance Over West Africa: Satellite- and Reanalysis-Derived Estimates vs. In Situ Measurements. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4152712 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4152712

Sawadogo Windmanagda (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Windmanagda Sawadogo

University of Augsburg ( email )

Universitätsstr. 2
Augsburg, 86159
Germany

Jan Bliefernicht

University of Augsburg ( email )

Universitätsstr. 2
Augsburg, 86159
Germany

Benjamin Fersch

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Seyni Salack

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Samuel Guug

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Belko Diallo

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Kehinde.O. Ogunjobi

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Guillaume Nacoulma

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Michael Tanu

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Stefanie Meilinger

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Harald Kunstmann

University of Augsburg ( email )

Universitätsstr. 2
Augsburg, 86159
Germany

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