Integration of Helioclim-1 database into PV-GIS to estimate solar electricity potential in Africa

pages 2989-2992We present a method for computing high resolution database of global horizontal irradiation for Africa and the Mediterranean Basin. Following this, we analyse the geographical and time variability of the solar energy potential for electricity applications. The primary solar radiation data were previously computed from Meteosat satellite images by the Heliosat-2 method and stored in the HelioClim-1 database. From this database, the long term monthly and yearly averages of global irradiation on horizontal plane (period 1985-2004) were derived. Using the PV-GIS method, based on a clear-sky model, interpolation of the clear-sky index and terrain shadowing, the original spatial resolution of HelioClim-1 database (15') was enhanced to 2 km. Using daily global irradiation from the enhanced PV-GIS database we estimated the electricity generation from a typical solar home system. Assuming a 100 Wp installation with a battery and battery charger, together with a performance ratio of 0.75, the power production ranges from about 0.3 to 0.6 kWh per day in most locations in Africa