IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v53y2016icp338-362.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Diffuse solar radiation on a horizontal surface: Reviewing and categorizing the empirical models

Author

Listed:
  • Khorasanizadeh, Hossein
  • Mohammadi, Kasra

Abstract

Accessibility to the accurate knowledge of diffuse solar radiation is a fundamental prerequisite for designing and monitoring the solar energy technologies. Nevertheless, the measured diffuse solar radiation is not available in most regions across the globe. During the past 60 years in order to estimate horizontal diffuse solar radiation on both daily and monthly mean daily basis, numerous empirical models have been developed or established for many locations around the world. For this purpose different parameters have been utilized and various functional forms employed. This study aims at providing a review on the diffuse solar radiation models developed, established and proposed thus far. To put forward a proper appraisal, the models are primarily categorized on the basis of how to correlate: (1) the diffuse fraction or cloudiness index (i.e. the ratio of diffuse solar radiation to the global solar radiation), and (2) the diffuse coefficient or diffuse transmittance index (i.e. the ratio of diffuse solar radiation to the extraterrestrial global solar radiation) with different inputs. Both categories, which in terms of the utilized inputs as well as the functional forms constitute 56 different models are re-classified into several main sub-categories and then presented in a chronological manner. This review would be profitable for solar energy researchers in terms of identifying the parameters and the functional forms widely utilized up till now as well as recognizing their significance. Accessibility to either solar and/or meteorological data varies from one location to another; thus, the appropriateness of the models to estimate the horizontal diffuse solar radiation depends on the availability of such inputs at a desired location. Additionally, to attain proper accuracy and reliability of estimation in a desired location the inputs should be selected based upon the fact that how much they can provide strong correlation with diffuse solar radiation.

Suggested Citation

  • Khorasanizadeh, Hossein & Mohammadi, Kasra, 2016. "Diffuse solar radiation on a horizontal surface: Reviewing and categorizing the empirical models," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 338-362.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:338-362
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032115008977
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Taşdemiroğlu, E & Sever, R, 1991. "Estimation of monthly average, daily, horizontal diffuse radiation in Turkey," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 787-790.
    2. Said, R. & Mansor, M. & Abuain, T., 1998. "Estimation of global and diffuse radiation at Tripoli," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 221-227.
    3. Nfaoui, H. & Buret, J., 1993. "Estimation of daily and monthly direct, diffuse and global solar radiation in Rabat (Morocco)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 3(8), pages 923-930.
    4. Li, Huashan & Bu, Xianbiao & Long, Zhen & Zhao, Liang & Ma, Weibin, 2012. "Calculating the diffuse solar radiation in regions without solar radiation measurements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 611-615.
    5. Dincer, Ibrahim, 2000. "Renewable energy and sustainable development: a crucial review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 157-175, June.
    6. Jiang, Yingni, 2009. "Estimation of monthly mean daily diffuse radiation in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(9), pages 1458-1464, September.
    7. Bakirci, Kadir, 2012. "General models for optimum tilt angles of solar panels: Turkey case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 16(8), pages 6149-6159.
    8. Besharat, Fariba & Dehghan, Ali A. & Faghih, Ahmad R., 2013. "Empirical models for estimating global solar radiation: A review and case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 798-821.
    9. Li, Huashan & Bu, Xianbiao & Lian, Yongwang & Zhao, Liang & Ma, Weibin, 2012. "Further investigation of empirically derived models with multiple predictors in estimating monthly average daily diffuse solar radiation over China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 469-473.
    10. Gopinathan, K.K. & Soler, Alfonso, 1995. "Diffuse radiation models and monthly-average, daily, diffuse data for a wide latitude range," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 20(7), pages 657-667.
    11. Veeran, P.K. & Kumar, S., 1993. "Diffuse radiation on a horizontal surfaces at Madras," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 3(8), pages 931-934.
    12. Ullah, K.R. & Saidur, R. & Ping, H.W. & Akikur, R.K. & Shuvo, N.H., 2013. "A review of solar thermal refrigeration and cooling methods," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 499-513.
    13. Boland, John & Huang, Jing & Ridley, Barbara, 2013. "Decomposing global solar radiation into its direct and diffuse components," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 749-756.
    14. Janjai, S. & Praditwong, P. & Moonin, C., 1996. "A new model for computing monthly average daily diffuse radiation for Bangkok," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 1283-1286.
    15. Lewis, Gladius, 1995. "Estimates of monthly mean daily diffuse irradiation in the Southeastern United States," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 6(8), pages 983-988.
    16. Ahmad, Firoz & Aqil Burney, S.M. & Husain, S.A., 1991. "Monthly average daily global beam and diffuse solar radiation and its correlation with hours of bright sunshine for Karachi, Pakistan," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 115-118.
    17. Martinez-Lozano, J.A. & Utrillas, M.P. & Gomez, V., 1994. "Estimation of the diffuse solar irradiation from global solar irradiation. Daily and monthly average daily values," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 95-100.
    18. El-Sebaii, A.A. & Al-Hazmi, F.S. & Al-Ghamdi, A.A. & Yaghmour, S.J., 2010. "Global, direct and diffuse solar radiation on horizontal and tilted surfaces in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 87(2), pages 568-576, February.
    19. Hove, T & Göttsche, J, 1999. "Mapping global, diffuse and beam solar radiation over Zimbabwe," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 535-556.
    20. Kaygusuz, Kamil, 2002. "Renewable and sustainable energy use in Turkey: a review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 339-366, August.
    21. Oliveira, Amauri P. & Escobedo, João F. & Machado, Antonio J. & Soares, Jacyra, 2002. "Correlation models of diffuse solar-radiation applied to the city of São Paulo, Brazil," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 59-73, January.
    22. Trabea, A.A, 1999. "Technical note a multiple linear correlation for diffuse radiation from global solar radiation and sunshine data over Egypt," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 411-420.
    23. Karakoti, Indira & Pande, Bimal & Pandey, Kavita, 2011. "Evaluation of different diffuse radiation models for Indian stations and predicting the best fit model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 2378-2384, June.
    24. Bosch, J.L. & López, G. & Batlles, F.J., 2008. "Daily solar irradiation estimation over a mountainous area using artificial neural networks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1622-1628.
    25. Thirugnanasambandam, Mirunalini & Iniyan, S. & Goic, Ranko, 2010. "A review of solar thermal technologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 312-322, January.
    26. Sabzpooshani, Majid & Mohammadi, Kasra, 2014. "Establishing new empirical models for predicting monthly mean horizontal diffuse solar radiation in city of Isfahan, Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 571-577.
    27. Karakoti, Indira & Das, Prasun Kumar & Singh, S.K., 2012. "Predicting monthly mean daily diffuse radiation for India," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 412-425.
    28. Pandey, Chanchal Kumar & Katiyar, A.K., 2009. "A comparative study to estimate daily diffuse solar radiation over India," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1792-1796.
    29. Gopinathan, K.K. & Soler, Alfonso, 1996. "Effect of sunshine and solar declination on the computation of monthly mean daily diffuse solar radiation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 89-93.
    30. Mohammadi, Kasra & Khorasanizadeh, Hossein, 2015. "A review of solar radiation on vertically mounted solar surfaces and proper azimuth angles in six Iranian major cities," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 504-518.
    31. Paliatsos, A.G. & Kambezidis, H.D. & Antoniou, A., 2003. "Diffuse solar irradiation at a location in the Balkan Peninsula," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 28(13), pages 2147-2156.
    32. Khalil, Samy A. & Shaffie, A.M., 2013. "A comparative study of total, direct and diffuse solar irradiance by using different models on horizontal and inclined surfaces for Cairo, Egypt," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 853-863.
    33. Will, A. & Bustos, J. & Bocco, M. & Gotay, J. & Lamelas, C., 2013. "On the use of niching genetic algorithms for variable selection in solar radiation estimation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 168-176.
    34. Bakirci, Kadir, 2015. "Models for the estimation of diffuse solar radiation for typical cities in Turkey," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 827-838.
    35. Li, Huashan & Ma, Weibin & Wang, Xianlong & Lian, Yongwang, 2011. "Estimating monthly average daily diffuse solar radiation with multiple predictors: A case study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1944-1948.
    36. Jin, Zhou & Yezheng, Wu & Gang, Yan, 2004. "Estimation of daily diffuse solar radiation in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1537-1548.
    37. Diagne, Maimouna & David, Mathieu & Lauret, Philippe & Boland, John & Schmutz, Nicolas, 2013. "Review of solar irradiance forecasting methods and a proposition for small-scale insular grids," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 65-76.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jamil, Basharat & Akhtar, Naiem, 2017. "Estimation of diffuse solar radiation in humid-subtropical climatic region of India: Comparison of diffuse fraction and diffusion coefficient models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 149-164.
    2. Fan, Junliang & Wu, Lifeng & Zhang, Fucang & Cai, Huanjie & Ma, Xin & Bai, Hua, 2019. "Evaluation and development of empirical models for estimating daily and monthly mean daily diffuse horizontal solar radiation for different climatic regions of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 168-186.
    3. Qin, Wenmin & Wang, Lunche & Lin, Aiwen & Zhang, Ming & Xia, Xiangao & Hu, Bo & Niu, Zigeng, 2018. "Comparison of deterministic and data-driven models for solar radiation estimation in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 579-594.
    4. Hassan, Muhammed A. & Abubakr, Mohamed & Khalil, Adel, 2021. "A profile-free non-parametric approach towards generation of synthetic hourly global solar irradiation data from daily totals," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 613-628.
    5. Samuel Chukwujindu, Nwokolo, 2017. "A comprehensive review of empirical models for estimating global solar radiation in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 955-995.
    6. Feng, Lan & Lin, Aiwen & Wang, Lunche & Qin, Wenmin & Gong, Wei, 2018. "Evaluation of sunshine-based models for predicting diffuse solar radiation in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 168-182.
    7. Chen, Ji-Long & He, Lei & Yang, Hong & Ma, Maohua & Chen, Qiao & Wu, Sheng-Jun & Xiao, Zuo-lin, 2019. "Empirical models for estimating monthly global solar radiation: A most comprehensive review and comparative case study in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 91-111.
    8. Jamil, Basharat & Akhtar, Naiem, 2017. "Comparison of empirical models to estimate monthly mean diffuse solar radiation from measured data: Case study for humid-subtropical climatic region of India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1326-1342.
    9. Jamil, Basharat & Akhtar, Naiem, 2017. "Comparative analysis of diffuse solar radiation models based on sky-clearness index and sunshine period for humid-subtropical climatic region of India: A case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 329-355.
    10. Wang, Lunche & Lu, Yunbo & Zou, Ling & Feng, Lan & Wei, Jing & Qin, Wenmin & Niu, Zigeng, 2019. "Prediction of diffuse solar radiation based on multiple variables in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 151-216.
    11. Moretón, R. & Lorenzo, E. & Pinto, A. & Muñoz, J. & Narvarte, L., 2017. "From broadband horizontal to effective in-plane irradiation: A review of modelling and derived uncertainty for PV yield prediction," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 886-903.
    12. Lu, Yunbo & Wang, Lunche & Zhu, Canming & Zou, Ling & Zhang, Ming & Feng, Lan & Cao, Qian, 2023. "Predicting surface solar radiation using a hybrid radiative Transfer–Machine learning model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    13. Liu, Yanfeng & Zhou, Yong & Chen, Yaowen & Wang, Dengjia & Wang, Yingying & Zhu, Ying, 2020. "Comparison of support vector machine and copula-based nonlinear quantile regression for estimating the daily diffuse solar radiation: A case study in China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 1101-1112.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jamil, Basharat & Akhtar, Naiem, 2017. "Comparison of empirical models to estimate monthly mean diffuse solar radiation from measured data: Case study for humid-subtropical climatic region of India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1326-1342.
    2. Jamil, Basharat & Akhtar, Naiem, 2017. "Comparative analysis of diffuse solar radiation models based on sky-clearness index and sunshine period for humid-subtropical climatic region of India: A case study," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 329-355.
    3. Despotovic, Milan & Nedic, Vladimir & Despotovic, Danijela & Cvetanovic, Slobodan, 2016. "Evaluation of empirical models for predicting monthly mean horizontal diffuse solar radiation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 246-260.
    4. Jamil, Basharat & Akhtar, Naiem, 2017. "Estimation of diffuse solar radiation in humid-subtropical climatic region of India: Comparison of diffuse fraction and diffusion coefficient models," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 149-164.
    5. Chen, Ji-Long & He, Lei & Chen, Qiao & Lv, Ming-Quan & Zhu, Hong-Lin & Wen, Zhao-Fei & Wu, Sheng-Jun, 2019. "Study of monthly mean daily diffuse and direct beam radiation estimation with MODIS atmospheric product," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 221-232.
    6. Wang, Lunche & Lu, Yunbo & Zou, Ling & Feng, Lan & Wei, Jing & Qin, Wenmin & Niu, Zigeng, 2019. "Prediction of diffuse solar radiation based on multiple variables in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 151-216.
    7. Shamshirband, Shahaboddin & Mohammadi, Kasra & Khorasanizadeh, Hossein & Yee, Por Lip & Lee, Malrey & Petković, Dalibor & Zalnezhad, Erfan, 2016. "Estimating the diffuse solar radiation using a coupled support vector machine–wavelet transform model," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 428-435.
    8. Mohammadi, Kasra & Shamshirband, Shahaboddin & Petković, Dalibor & Khorasanizadeh, Hossein, 2016. "Determining the most important variables for diffuse solar radiation prediction using adaptive neuro-fuzzy methodology; case study: City of Kerman, Iran," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1570-1579.
    9. Fan, Junliang & Wu, Lifeng & Zhang, Fucang & Cai, Huanjie & Ma, Xin & Bai, Hua, 2019. "Evaluation and development of empirical models for estimating daily and monthly mean daily diffuse horizontal solar radiation for different climatic regions of China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 168-186.
    10. Yang, Liu & Cao, Qimeng & Yu, Ying & Liu, Yan, 2020. "Comparison of daily diffuse radiation models in regions of China without solar radiation measurement," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    11. Sabzpooshani, Majid & Mohammadi, Kasra, 2014. "Establishing new empirical models for predicting monthly mean horizontal diffuse solar radiation in city of Isfahan, Iran," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 571-577.
    12. Bakirci, Kadir, 2015. "Models for the estimation of diffuse solar radiation for typical cities in Turkey," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 827-838.
    13. Karakoti, Indira & Das, Prasun Kumar & Singh, S.K., 2012. "Predicting monthly mean daily diffuse radiation for India," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 91(1), pages 412-425.
    14. Li, Huashan & Bu, Xianbiao & Long, Zhen & Zhao, Liang & Ma, Weibin, 2012. "Calculating the diffuse solar radiation in regions without solar radiation measurements," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 611-615.
    15. Samuel Chukwujindu, Nwokolo, 2017. "A comprehensive review of empirical models for estimating global solar radiation in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 955-995.
    16. Khalil, Samy A. & Shaffie, A.M., 2016. "Evaluation of transposition models of solar irradiance over Egypt," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 105-119.
    17. Hassan, Gasser E. & Youssef, M. Elsayed & Mohamed, Zahraa E. & Ali, Mohamed A. & Hanafy, Ahmed A., 2016. "New Temperature-based Models for Predicting Global Solar Radiation," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 437-450.
    18. Li, Huashan & Bu, Xianbiao & Lian, Yongwang & Zhao, Liang & Ma, Weibin, 2012. "Further investigation of empirically derived models with multiple predictors in estimating monthly average daily diffuse solar radiation over China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 469-473.
    19. Bakirci, Kadir, 2021. "Prediction of diffuse radiation in solar energy applications: Turkey case study and compare with satellite data," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    20. Cao, Fei & Li, Huashan & Yang, Tian & Li, Yan & Zhu, Tianyu & Zhao, Liang, 2017. "Evaluation of diffuse solar radiation models in Northern China: New model establishment and radiation sources comparison," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 708-720.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:53:y:2016:i:c:p:338-362. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.