SOLAR RADIATION MODELS FOR SOLAR ENERGY APPLICATIONS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

A model for the prediction of average monthly global solar radiation on horizontal surface for some locations in the tropical climate zone is presented. Global solar radiation and sunshine duration data for five Nigeria Stations were used to fit in the Angstrom Model for the clearness index (KT = H/Ho), the relative sunshine duration (S/Smax.),maximum temperature and mean temperature. The test performance of the models for the five stations have been done in terms of the widely used statistical indicators, the Mean Bias Errors (MBE) and Root Mean square Error (RMSE). It was found from statistical models performance indicators that the models provided reasonably high degree of precision in the prediction of average monthly global solar radiation on horizontal surfaces.