High-Frequency and High-Resolution Surface Solar Irradiation Assessment
Project outline
Even within the 25 km belt of the existing electric grid, the available solar energy is 500 time the national total energy requirement. Nevertheless, currently solar energy production is only 5% of the total national energy consumption.
Timely estimation and forecasting of available surface solar irradiance (SSI) are of great importance for solar energy planning and adoption and for the development of a low-carbon economy. SSI is also a fundamental parameter in the modelling of weather, climate, and in ecosystem and agricultural activities. The Himawari-8/9 satellite (and geostationary satellites in other regions) provides an opportunity to estimate available SSI at high frequency (every 10 minute or so) and high spatial resolution, allowing for better SSI now- and fore-casting leading to better planning on energy production.
This project develops an operational method to estimate the total surface irradiance and its direct and diffuse components using Himawari-8 imagery at a resolution of 2km and every 10 minutes, as illustrated in the figure below, where the left panel shows the total horizontal irradiance and the right panel shows the direct horizontal irradiance. SSI data are available for the Australian region (110°E to 150°E, 10°S to 45°S) from July 2015 to June 2020.
Validations indicate that satellite-based SSI estimation is able to provide reliable and accurate SSI data. The figure below shows a comparison of satellite estimated and ground measured SSI and components (top: total horizontal, middle: direct horizontal, bottom: diffuse horizontal).
This project is continuously being developed towards a near-real-time method, eventually leading to short-term forecasting capability.
Project funding
The project was funded partly by CSIRO Energy, and partly by O&A, both through strategic projects.
Project investigator
