Introduction
Overview¶
Curious about photovoltaic performance? This is an introduction into the estimation of photovoltaic power over a location and a moment or period in time.
We will explore solar radiation components and photovoltaic power estimates, by stepping through:
- the calculation of the position of the sun in the sky
- the measurement of sun-to-surface angles
- the analysis of solar irradiance components
- and the derivation of the effective amount of global irradiance.
Example¶
Before we walk through the tutorial, let's get straight a/the result we are aiming at ! We want to estimate the photovoltaic power output for a specific location and a short period of time. Along with the result,
pvgis power broadband \
8.628 45.812 214 \
--start-time '2014-01-27' \
--end-time '2014-01-28' \
--global-horizontal-irradiance data/sample_sarah3_sis_over_esti.nc \
--direct-horizontal-irradiance data/sample_sarah3_sid_over_esti.nc \
--neighbor-lookup nearest \
--quiet
Tip
Just copy-and-paste the commands and follow along. This is one way to practice through this tutorial!
Let's see a plot for this output time series
pvgis power broadband \
8.628 45.812 214 \
--start-time '2014-01-27' \
--end-time '2014-01-28' \
--global-horizontal-irradiance data/sample_sarah3_sis_over_esti.nc \
--direct-horizontal-irradiance data/sample_sarah3_sid_over_esti.nc \
--neighbor-lookup nearest \
--uniplot \
--quiet
Uniplot
PV Power observed from (longitude, latitude) 0.15058700786207074, 0.7995702369236423
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▙ │
│ ▐▐ │ 300 W
│ ▌▝▖ │
│ ▐ ▌ │
│ ▌ ▚ │
│ ▐ ▐ │
│ ▌ ▌ │ 200 W
│ ▖ ▐ ▌ │
│ ▄▀▚ ▌ ▐ │
│ ▖ ▗▞ ▚▖ ▗▞ ▐ │
│ ▄▀▝▀▀▚▄▘ ▝▖ ▄▘ ▌ │
│ ▄▀ ▝▄▞ ▚ │ 100 W
│ ▄▀ ▘ ▐ │
│ ▄▀ ▝▖ │
│ ▄▀ ▌ │
│ ▄▀ ▚ │
│▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▀▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▐▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄▄│ 0 W
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
2014-01-27 2014-01-27T06:00 2014-01-27T12:00 2014-01-27T18:00 2014-01-28
██ Photovoltaic Power
Analysis¶
Let's break-down the result :
pvgis power broadband \
8.628 45.812 214 180 0.0001 \
--start-time '2014-01-27' \
--end-time '2014-01-28' \
--global-horizontal-irradiance data/sample_sarah3_sis_over_esti.nc \
--direct-horizontal-irradiance data/sample_sarah3_sid_over_esti.nc \
--neighbor-lookup nearest \
-vv
PV Power series [W] (1/2)
Time ⌁ Power Technology ⌁ Power without Loss ☂ In shade
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2014-01-27 00:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 01:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 02:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 03:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 04:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 05:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 06:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 07:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 False
2014-01-27 08:00:00 47.705 cSi:Free standing 2025 55.471 False
2014-01-27 09:00:00 94.632 cSi:Free standing 2025 110.037 False
2014-01-27 10:00:00 140.727 cSi:Free standing 2025 163.636 False
2014-01-27 11:00:00 136.93 cSi:Free standing 2025 159.221 False
2014-01-27 12:00:00 173.761 cSi:Free standing 2025 202.048 False
2014-01-27 13:00:00 107.932 cSi:Free standing 2025 125.503 False
2014-01-27 14:00:00 125.94 cSi:Free standing 2025 146.442 False
2014-01-27 15:00:00 90.644 cSi:Free standing 2025 105.399 False
2014-01-27 16:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 False
2014-01-27 17:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 18:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 19:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 20:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 21:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 22:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-27 23:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
2014-01-28 00:00:00 0.0 cSi:Free standing 2025 0.0 True
⅀ / μ 918.271 1067.757
PV Power series [W] (2/2)
Time ☉ ⛰ Sun-Horizon Position Incidence Definition Frequency
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
2014-01-27 00:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 01:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 02:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 03:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 04:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 05:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 06:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 07:00:00 Low angle Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 08:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 09:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 10:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 11:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 12:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 13:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 14:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 15:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 16:00:00 Above Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 17:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 18:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 19:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 20:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 21:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 22:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-27 23:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
2014-01-28 00:00:00 Below Sun-Vector-to-Surface-Plane h
⅀ / μ
╭──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│ Angular units ㎭ radians │
│ Location Longitude, Latitude = 0.151, 0.8 │
│ Position Surface Orientation: 3.142, Surface Tilt: 0.0 │
│ Definitions Azimuth origin : North, Zone : UTC, Sun-Horizon Positions: Above, Low angle, Below, Shading states: │
│ Sunlit, Potentially-sunlit, In-shade, │
│ Algorithms Power model: Huld 2011, Timing : NOAA, Positioning : NOAA, Incidence : Iqbal, │
│ Constants Solar constant : 1360.8, Perigee : 0.048869, Eccentricity : 0.03344 │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Reference ─╯
╭───────────────────────────────╮
│ ⌁ Power μ Mean │
│ ☂ In shade │
│ ☉ Sun │
│ ⛰ Horizon │
│ - Loss │
│ ⅀ N-ary Summation │
╰────────────────────── Legend ─╯
For each hour during the period in question, we calculated the photovoltaic power output based on satellite-based observations of the terrestrial radiation and a predefined efficiency and other parameters.
Symbols
The Power ⌁ column is the results of the
Global ∡ inclined irradiance
multiplied by the overall Efficiency %.
In fact,
the global inclined irradiance can be broken down in
its inclined irradiance components
Direct ∡, Diffuse ∡ and Reflected ∡.
See the complete list at Symbols