Solar Irradiance : Types and Applications

The book first presents intelligent models for sizing, parameters forecasting and control of a photovoltaic system on the basis of a modified fuzzy neural net. The modified fuzzy neural net provides automatic fulfillment and modification of all proposed intelligent models. Following this, the authors discuss modeling direct normal irradiance at the Earth''s surface. In addition to looking traditionally at direct normal irradiance as a fuel for concentrating solar systems, its use in computing the sunshine number is also explored. The closing study explores the potential of using simple empirical and artificial neural network models to estimate global solar radiation on a horizontal surface. Algeria was used as a case study and four statistical parameters were chosen to assess the performances of each model or approach.