24 Mar Clouds and aerosols impact

This study focuses on the predictions and verification of these predictions of solar energy using ground-based solar measurements from the Hellenic Network for Solar Energy and the National Observatory of Athens network, as well as solar radiation operational forecasts provided by the MM5 mesoscale model. The evaluation was carried out independently for the different networks, for two forecast horizons (1 and 2 days ahead), for the seasons of the year, for varying solar elevation, for the indicative energy potential of the area, and for four classes of cloud cover based on the calculated clearness index (kt): CS (clear sky), SC (scattered clouds), BC (broken clouds) and OC (overcast). The seasonal dependence presented relative rRMSE (Root Mean Square Error) values ranging from 15% (summer) to 60% (winter), while the solar elevation dependence revealed a high effectiveness and reliability near local noon (rRMSE ~30%). An increment of the errors with cloudiness was also observed. For CS with mean GHI (global horizontal irradiance) ~ 650 W/m2 the errors are 8%, for SC 20% and for BC and OC the errors were greater (>40%) but correspond to much lower radiation levels (<120 W/m2) of consequently lower energy potential impact. The total energy potential for each ground station ranges from 1.5 to 1.9 MWh/m2, while the mean monthly forecast error was found to be consistently below 10%.

This study assesses the impact of dust on surface solar radiation focussing on an extreme dust event. For this purpose, we exploited the synergy of AERONET measurements and passive and active satellite remote sensing (MODIS and CALIPSO) observations, in conjunction with radiative transfer model (RTM) and chemical transport model (CTM) simulations and the 1-day ahead forecasts from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS). The area of interest is the eastern Mediterranean where anomalously high aerosol loads were recorded between the 30 January and 3 February 2015. The intensity of the event was extremely high, with aerosol optical depth (AOD) reaching 3.5, and optical/microphysical properties suggesting aged dust. RTM and CTM simulations were able to quantify the extent of dust impact on surface irradiances and reveal substantial reduction in solar energy exploitation capacity of PV and CSP installations, under this high aerosol load. We found that such an extreme dust event can result to Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) attenuation by as much as 40-50%, a much stronger Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) decrease (80-90%), while spectrally this attenuation is distributed to 37% in the UV region, 33% to the visible and around 30% to the infrared. CAMS forecasts provided a reliable available energy assessment (accuracy within 10% of that obtained from MODIS). Spatially, the dust plume resulted in a zonally-averaged reduction of GHI and DNI of the order of 150W/m² in southern Greece, and a mean increase of 20 W/m² in the northern Greece as a result of lower AOD values combined with local atmospheric processes. This analysis of a real-world scenario contributes to the understanding and quantification of impact range of high aerosol loads on solar energy and the potential for forecasting power generation failures at sunshine-privileged locations where solar power plants exist, are under construction, or being planned.