Results of Analysis of the Applicability of Satellite Observations and Reanalysis Data for Simulations of Autonomous Solar Power Systems

Abstract

An accuracy of predicting energy performance of autonomous photovoltaic systems using various climatic databases (NASA POWER, SARAH-E, CLARA-A, ERA5, Meteonorm, etc.) has been analyzed for some geographic points in Russia by comparison with calculations based on data from the World Radiation Data Center. It has been showed that the databases considered provide a spread of predictions for required rated solar battery power at a level of 10–20% only when solar fraction is less than 70%. For a larger solar fraction prediction error of required rated solar battery power can reach several hundred percent.