IEA-PVPS Task-16 Reference Solar Measurements

Date(s) (Publication)
Author(s): , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Affiliation(s) 1 : CSP Services GmbH
2 : O.I.E. - Centre Observation, Impacts, Énergie
3 : German Aerospace Center (DLR)
4 : Tecnical university of Denmark
5 : Centro Nacional de Energias Renovables
6 : Solar Consulting Services
7 : RSE - Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico
8 : HIT - Harbin Institute of Technology
9 : CIEMAT - Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas Medioambientales y Tecnológicas [Madrid]
10 : Universidad de Málaga [Málaga]
11 : MINES ParisTech
Publisher(s): Lionel MENARD11 
Version V 1.0
DOI 10.23646/3491b1a6-e32d-4b34-9dbb-ee0affe49e36
Abstract A stringent QC method based on expert consensus was developed based on various tests from the literature, after discussion among a group of international solar radiation experts who participate in IEA PVPS Task 16. The proposed QC method incorporates a suite of up to 15 specific tests, depending on the measurement principle (three independent irradiance components, or only two), and multi-plots describing key variables and covering a whole year of data at each site. The method was successfully applied to 161 radiometric world stations, using up to six years of data per station. The data set published here is a subset of these 161 radiometric ground-based stations. The data is in 1 minute resolution and stems from different types of stations, that either measure all three radiation components (direct, diffuse and global) or only two of them. The type of station is noted in the data description. The data itself includes the data flags from the automatic tests as well as the manual flag. It is also indicated if a data point is usable. The clear sky index as well as the GHI calculated and the solar elevation and azimuth angles are included as well. The time stamps refer to the end of the period for all data sets.
A significant part of these data sets and some quality control results of the data sets are published here. All owners of the data published in this download catalogue have explicitly consented to data publication in the public domain or have published their data with the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. For other data used in the study, but not published in this download catalogue this consent was not obtained.
Please refer to the paper from the SWC 2021 conference proceedings (doi:10.18086/swc.2021.38.02) for the exact documentation of the flags and tests applied. Kindly note that the QC method includes these tests:
• Missing timestamps
• Missing values
• K-Tests (Geuder et al. 2015; Gueymard 2017)
• BSRN’s closure tests (Long and Dutton 2002)
• BSRN’s extremely rare limits test (Long and Dutton 2002)
• BSRN’s physically possible limits test (Long and Dutton 2002)
• Tracker-off test, improved from (Long and Shi 2008)
• Visual inspection, including shading assessment, closure test, AM/PM symmetry check for GHI, and calibration check using the clear-sky index.

Not all tests are part of the BSRN official QC Toolbox (Long and Dutton 2002).

We would like to thank the following institutions and colleagues for the provision of data for this work:
• NamPower in Namibia
• Mr. Yuldash Sobirov from the Institute of Material Science in Uzbekistan
• Frank Vignola from the University of Oregon
• David Pozo from the University Jaen
• Dietmar Baumgartner from the University of Graz
• Julian Gröbner at PMOD
• Nicolas Fernay from the University Lille
• Peter Armstrong at the Masdar Institute
• Laurent Vuilleumier at MeteoSwiss
• Irena Balog at ENEA
• Sophie Pelland at CanmetÉNERGIE Varennes
• Emmanuel Guillot at CNRS-PROMES, Odeillo
• Department of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark
• Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
• Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
• INPE National Institute of Space Research CCST Center for Earth System Sciences with FINEP Financier of Studies and Projects Ministry of Science and Technology and PETROBRAS Petróleo Brasileiro
• SKYNET, in particular Hitoshi Irie and Tamio Takamura (CEReS/Chiba-U.), Chiba University, Tadahiro Hayasaka (Tohoku University), Chulalongkorn University
• ESMAP program of the World Bank Goup in particular Joana Zerbin, Clara Ivanescu, Branislav Schnierer, Roman Affolter, GeoSUN Africa, Rachel Fox, Margot King
• Cairo University in Egypt
• University of Oujda
• Institute Research Solar Energy Et Energies Nouvelles (IRESEN) in Morocco
• Research and Technology Centre of Energy (CRTEn) in Tunisia
• University of Jordan in Jordan and the Centre de Developpement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER) in Algeria.
• NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory
• Baseline Surface Radiation Network (https://bsrn.awi.de/ ). The used data set is available for download here: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.939988 For the data policy of the BSRN please refer here: https://bsrn.awi.de/data/conditions-of-data-release/.

CSPS and DLR thank the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy for funding their contribution to the study within the SOLREV project (contract number 03EE1010). DLR would like to thank the German Federal Foreign Office for funding and coordinating the enerMENA project.
Adam R. Jensen thanks the Danish Energy Agency for funding his participation (grant number: 64019-0512). Part of this work has been financed by Research Fund for the Italian Electrical System with the Decree of 16 April 2018.

If you want to use the data in publications please include the following acknowledgments:

“The authors would like to thank the following institutions and colleagues for the provision of data for this study:
• NamPower in Namibia
• Mr. Yuldash Sobirov from the Institute of Material Science in Uzbekistan
• Frank Vignola from the University of Oregon
• David Pozo from the University Jaen
• Dietmar Baumgartner from the University of Graz
• Julian Gröbner at PMOD
• Nicolas Fernay from the University Lille
• Peter Armstrong at the Masdar Institute
• Laurent Vuilleumier at MeteoSwiss
• Irena Balog at ENEA
• Sophie Pelland at CanmetÉNERGIE Varennes
• Emmanuel Guillot at CNRS-PROMES, Odeillo
• Department of Civil Engineering at the Technical University of Denmark
• Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute
• Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
• INPE National Institute of Space Research CCST Center for Earth System Sciences with FINEP Financier of Studies and Projects Ministry of Science and Technology and PETROBRAS Petróleo Brasileiro
• SKYNET, in particular Hitoshi Irie and Tamio Takamura (CEReS/Chiba-U.), Chiba University, Tadahiro Hayasaka (Tohoku University), Chulalongkorn University
• ESMAP program of the World Bank Goup in particular Joana Zerbin, Clara Ivanescu, Branislav Schnierer, Roman Affolter, GeoSUN Africa, Rachel Fox, Margot King
• Cairo University in Egypt
• University of Oujda
• Institute Research Solar Energy Et Energies Nouvelles (IRESEN) in Morocco
• Research and Technology Centre of Energy (CRTEn) in Tunisia
• University of Jordan in Jordan and the Centre de Developpement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER) in Algeria.
• NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory
• Baseline Surface Radiation Network (https://bsrn.awi.de/ )

The authors also thank the IEA PVPS task 16 partners CSP Services, MINES ParisTech/ARMINES, DLR, Solar Consulting Services, Harbin Institute of Technology, CENER, DTU, RSE, CIEMAT and Uni Malaga for providing their data sets, for combining the data sets and for providing the results of the quality control.”

If you only use a subset of the data please specify only the stations or networks used in your analysis.

How to cite:
Anne Forstinger, Yves-Marie Saint-Drenan, Stefan Wilbert, Adam Jensen, Birk Kraas, Carlos Fernández Peruchena, Chris Gueymard, Dario Ronzio, Dazhi Yang, Elena Collino, Jesús Polo Martinez, Jose Ruiz-Arias, Natalie Hanrieder, Philippe Blanc (2021). IEA-PVPS Task-16 Reference Solar Measurements. MINES ParisTech. http://dx.doi.org/10.23646/3491b1a6-e32d-4b34-9dbb-ee0affe49e36
Keywords IEA-PVPS, Energy, Renewable energy, in-situ, Measurements, Solar, Webservice-energy, Thredds, TDS, NetCDF, World, Global
Lineage N/A
Utilisation Exclusive right granted by law for a specified period of time.
Temporal Extent 2015-01-01 - 2019-01-31

How to cite

Anne Forstinger, Yves-Marie Saint-Drenan, Stefan Wilbert, Adam Jensen, Birk Kraas, Carlos Fernández Peruchena, Chris Gueymard, Dario Ronzio, Dazhi Yang, Elena Collino, Jesús Polo Martinez, Jose Ruiz-Arias, Natalie Hanrieder, Philippe Blanc (2021). IEA-PVPS Task-16 Reference Solar Measurements. MINES ParisTech. http://dx.doi.org/10.23646/3491b1a6-e32d-4b34-9dbb-ee0affe49e36