First Steps in the Cross-Comparison of Solar Resource Spatial Products in Europe

International audienceYearly sum of global irradiation is compared from six spatial (map) databases: ESRA, PVGIS, Meteonorm, Satel-Light, HelioClim-2, and NASA SSE. This study does not identify the best database, but in a relative cross-comparison it points out to the areas of higher variability of outputs. Two maps are calculated to show an average of the yearly irradiation for horizontal surface together with the standard deviation that illustrates the combined effect of differences between the databases at the regional level. Differences at the local level are analysed on a set of 37 randomly selected points: global irradiation is calculated from subset of databases for southwards inclined (at 34°) and 2-axis tracking surfaces. Differences at the regional level indicate that within 90% of the study area the uncertainty of yearly global irradiation estimates (expressed by standard deviation) does not exceed 7% for horizontal surface, 8.3% for surface inclined at 34°, and 10% for 2-axis tracking surface. Higher differences in the outputs from the studied databases are found in complex climate conditions of mountains, along some coastal zones and in areas where solar radiation modelling cannot rely on sufficient density and quality of input dat