Detailed Information on Irradiance Characteristics in Central Africa (Rwanda) from a Dedicated Network of Ground Stations and Satellite Derived Data
Abstract
In Rwanda as in most of the countries in central Africa in-situ empirical data on solar irradiance are sparse. This presents an obstacle for an increased application of solar energy to the coverage of the (increasing) energy needs of the country. These needs are given by both, the wish to increase the share of PV to bulk electricity and the application of PV for off-grid rural electrification. Required for a proper planning of both on- and off-grid applications are information beyond the knowledge of annual or monthly irradiance sums. For the layout of the off-grid systems the respective knowledge of the temporal variability is essential for e.g. the sizing of batteries. For on-grid systems the time and space characteristics of the irradiance field effect the interaction of PV-power plants with the conventional generation park. In Rwanda a new dedicated network of meteorological stations, that are logging the irradiance with a 5min time resolution has been set up to close this gap. For a more comprehensive approach the data from this network can be used to calibrate the satellite derived irradiance data for the continuous coverage of this region. This paper gives a short view on the use of the data for these two fields of application.
Keywords
Irradiance data, Irradiance statistics, Satellite derived data, Ground station network