Can photovoltaics be used to estimate cloud cover?
Journal
International Journal of Sustainable Energy
Date Issued
October 20, 2020
DOI
10.1080/14786451.2020.1777129
Abstract
The current study evaluates a new method for the estimation of cloud cover using only photovoltaics (PV) as ground-based irradiance sensors. Seven different scenarios were examined using 30, 50, 75, 100, 500 and 1000 randomly and 1000 non-randomly distributed residential PV stations in a study area of 10 km × 10 km For each scenario, 3500 different fractal-based cloud shadows were produced and the accuracy of the model in estimating the cloud cover, in percentage cover and in oktas, based on the number of stations being shaded, was calculated. With 30 PV stations, the model produced an average accuracy of only 57% for the predicted okta cover, while its accuracy increased to 90% and 94% with 500 and 1000 PV stations.
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