Monthly-averaged daily data

Подпись: 0

Figures 2 and 3 show the annual variation of global irradiation and sunshine hours for the stations considered in this work. Generally, they show a regular annual variation with a maximum between June and July and a minimum in December. The only exception is represented by the station of Pedro Murias, which has a maximum in May and a relative minimum in June. As expected, the highest value of global insolation is found at Ancares, due to its altitude and rural location. The evolution of the sunshine hours shows a similar trend, with maxima occurring in summertime and minima in winter.

image088

Table 2 summarizes these results. Having a look at the mean values of insolation and sunshine hours, Corrubedo has the highest values. It should be noticed that this site, which is located at only 38 km west from Lourizan, has mean sunshine hours and insolation significantly higher than Lourizan, 1 hour and 2 MJ m-2, respectively. The two stations located in an urban environment (Lourizan and Ferrol) are characterized by similar levels of insolation and sunshine hours.

Fig.3: Monthly average daily sunshine hours for the stations analysed

On table 3 are represented the main features of the yearly and monthly mean values of temperature, precipitations and relative humidity. The trend of the temperature is similar in all the locations, with maxima in August and minima in February.

Table 2: Monthly and yearly averaged daily values of Insolation and Sunshine Hours in the stations.

Mean

Max

Min

Mean

Max

Min

Station

Insolation

Insolation

Insolation

Sunshine

Sunshine

Sunshine

(kJ m-2)

(kJ m-2)

(kJ m-2)

Hours

Hours

Hours

Ferrol

12446

20307 Jun

4069 Dec

5.6

8.5 Jul

2.7 Dec

Lourizan

11898

20383 Jun

4194 Dec

5.7

9.1 Jul

2.8 Dec

P. Murias

10511

16628 May

3754 Dec

4.7

6.5 May

2.3 Jan

Alto

Rodicio

12687

20962 Jun

4444 Dec

5.9

8.8 Jul

3.1 Dec

Monte

Aloia

12545

20697 Jun

5013 Dec

6.0

8.5 Jul

3.6 Jan

Corrubedo

13842

22807 Jun

5185 Dec

6.6

9.6 Jun

3.5 Dec

Ancares

13805

23748 Jul

5264 Dec

6.0

9.7 Jul

3.3 Dec

Sergude

10629

18562Jul

3809 Dec

5.3

8.1 Jul

2.3 Dec

As it was already mentioned, mean precipitations are higher than the rest of Spain [10]. The highest values are found in Monte Aloia, due to the westerly air masses with high water content that

channel into the outfall of Mino river and ascend to the slope of the local mountain range, Sierra do Galineiro. In all the stations, maxima occur in October and minima in summertime.

Ferrol

Lourizan

Murias

Rodicio

Aloia

Corrubedo

Ancares

Sergude

14.2

14.8

13.8

10.2

12.7

14.8

8.4

13.5

23.7

Aug

26.3 Aug

22.5

Aug

22.7 Jul

24.1

Aug

23.3 Aug

20.1 Aug

25.9

Aug

7.2 Feb

5.8 Feb

6.4 Feb

2.3 Feb

5.4

Feb

8.6 Feb

0 Feb

4.3 Feb

82

77

88

84

79

82

79

84

85 Oct

83 Dec

92 Jun

91 Nov

87

Oct

88 Oct

87 Oct

90 Jan

79 Apr

73 Jun

84 Apr

77 Aug

75

Aug

72 Jun

72 Jun

78 Aug

1225

1574

918

1108

2097

1032

1406

1409

211Oct

331 Oct

131Oct

220 Oct

465

Oct

150 Oct

230 Oct

261 Oct

45 Aug

46 Jul

39 Jun

41 Jul

62 Jul

30 Jun

44 Aug

24 Aug

Table 3: Monthly and yearly averaged daily values of Temperature, Relative Humidity and accumulated

Precipitations in the stations analysed.

Clearness Index: averaged values and frequency distribution

image089

The monthly averaged daily data of KT are depicted in Fig. 4 for five stations. It can be noticed that the station of Ancares is the one with the highest values of the index all over the year; it can be explained because of its altitude, rural environment and relatively cloud-free atmosphere. These values have a maximum in summertime.

The lowest clearness indexes are found in Pedro Murias and Lourizan. The first station, located in a rural environment, is characterized by high values of relative humidity that produce, together with low values of temperature (Table 3) and persistent fogs, especially in summertime. The station of Lourizan, located in an urban environment, is characterized by the lowest values of relative

humidity (77% yearly average) and the highest value of temperature (table 3). These features suggest that low values of KT are produced by anthropogenic aerosols, generated by local factories and urban pollution.

The station of Ferrol, despite of its suburban location, close to a sea port, has values of KT higher than Lourizan, due to the presence of winds that clean up the atmosphere from aerosols and fogs.

3.1 Ground data vs. satellite observations

Yearly and monthly averaged daily values of global irradiation collected in the meteorological stations were compared with the averaged values derived from satellite images and collected in the Solar Atlas of Galicia [4].

Figure 5 shows, for the stations analyzed, the distribution of the yearly averaged daily values measured by pyranometers at five stations versus the estimated values by Vazquez et al. [4]. Global irradiances estimated from satellite images overestimates the data collected by the meteorological stations in every location, except in Ancares. In three cases (Ancares, Ferrol and Corrubedo) the agreement between ground and satellite is quite good, with relative differences less than 3% (Table 4). In the other sites, differences are higher, ranging from 10.7% (Alto do Rodicio) to 25.3% (Sergude). Relative differences in the monthly averaged daily values are greater, up till 76%. Mainly, overestimations by ground measurements occur during winter.

image090

Fig. 5: Distribution of the yearly mean values of global irradiation for the stations analyzed

The reason for these disagreements may be found in the normalization of the satellite data adopted by Vazquez et al. [4]. To obtain monthly averaged daily values, the authors apply only one coefficient for the entire region, instead of dividing the territory in areas characterized by similar climatologic features and calculating different normalization coefficients for each area. In their work, Vazquez et al. [4], compare their results only with one station, obtaining a very good agreement. For that, they assume the goodness of the results achieved for the entire region that is, as previously stated, characterized by complex topography and high climatologic variability.

Table 4: Relative differences (satellite-pyranometer) between the yearly and monthly averaged daily values

of global irradiation in the location analysed.

Month

Ferrol

Lourizan

Murias

Rodicio

Aloia

Corrubedo

Ancares

Sergude

Jan

-3.9

8.7

16.2

-2.4

3.7

-5.2

-23.6

24.7

Feb

-5.9

-7.7

9.2

-9.0

1.3

-17.7

-23.6

42.2

Mar

13.5

44.0

23.2

22.0

36.6

18.7

10.4

32.2

Apr

-3.06

19.5

12.7

13.5

13.4

1.0

1.8

36.4

May

0.8

19.9

12.6

13.6

11.8

-0.2

-1.4

23.4

Jun

2.8

13.0

24.2

15.1

13.1

5.8

-0.2

29.7

Jul

6.9

34.8

21.2

18.4

18.9

9.5

-4.5

16.4

Ago

-1.5

8.4

18.4

10.3

13.7

3.0

-8.5

12.2

Sep

2.9

-4.9

19.9

4.9

8.5

7.3

-1.8

21.9

Oct

6.4

3.6

75.9

-10.6

15.4

0.6

6.2

22.4

Nov

14.3

26.8

25.5

24.6

5.8

-16.1

1.1

19.3

Dec

6.2

11.6

15.1

1.3

0.5

-6.3

-17.9

18.1

Avg

2.7

15.0

18.2

10.7

13.4

2.7

-2.2

25.3

4. Conclusions

The evaluation of the solar resource in eight sites of Galicia has been carried out for the period 2001-2006. The analysis of global irradiation, sunshine hours, clearness index, together with other meteorological parameters — precipitations, relative humidity and temperature — allowed a characterization of the solar resource in this region.

Monthly averaged daily values of global radiation and sunshine hours point out the complex climatology of the Galician territory. In an area of less than 30.000 km2, distributed over 2° of latitude and longitude, differences in the yearly mean daily values of global irradiation of more than 3 MJm-2 per day were found between the locations considered. This range of variability in the values of global irradiation is comparable to that of Germany (Meteonorm; Bern, Switzerland).

In the same way, yearly averaged daily values of sunshine duration show differences of almost 2 hours per day between the sites.

The analysis of precipitations, temperature and relative humidity, combined with the study of solar radiation, evidence the presence of persistent fogs in particular zones of Galicia. The station of Pedro Murias represents the most remarkable example. In the same way, the analysis of the solar radiation combined with the mean values of precipitations points out that extremely rainy areas, as that represented by the station of Monte Aloia, are not necessarily associated with low insolation.

The complexity of the Galician climate comes also out analysing the mean values of the clearness index: while the highest values are found in high elevation sites, as a consequence of a clearer atmosphere, the lowest values occur in Lourizan and Pedro Murias due, respectively, to the urban pollution and to persistent fog episodes.

The comparison of solar irradiation ground measurements vs. satellite observations gives the opportunity for making several remarks. The solar irradiation maps obtained by Vazquez et al. [4] evidence two different trends: a) the incoming solar radiation increases with the decreasing latitude and b) coastal zones receive more radiation than the inner nearby areas.

The ground measurements of global irradiation recorded in eight sites of Galicia depict a much more complex pattern not so easy to generalize. The latitude effect seems to be inexistent or, at least, is masked by more important local climatologic factors. Thus, Corrubedo and Lourizan, being at the same latitude, show yearly averaged daily differences of 2 MJ m-2. The same

differences are found in Ferrol and Pedro Murias, that have similar geographical features. In these areas, Vazquez et al. found differences of 0.36 MJ m-2 per day.

The stations of Ferrol and Alto do Rodicio, located respectively in the coast and in the interior, have similar mean values of irradiation even they are separated by 1° in latitude. The highest levels of radiation are found in Corrubedo and Ancares, located at the same latitude, but respectively on the western and eastern edges of Galicia. All these facts drive to the conclusion that the distribution of the solar resource in a region such as Galicia cannot be explained without the support of other climatologic and topographic features.

The present work was intended for characterizing the solar resource in eight sites of Galicia over a period of 5 years. In the future, the data record will increase also due to the installation of 17 more first class pyranometers and 30 pyranometers with Photovoltaic sensor. This will allow a more detailed characterization of the solar resource in time and space.

Due to the complex topography and climatology of Galicia, this will not be enough to obtain solar maps of the region since, in these cases, interpolation techniques do not provide sufficiently reliable results [11]. However, data from this solar radiation network will represent a very important tool to validate and calibrate the methods to estimate the solar resource.

Acknowledgements

Meteorological dataset provided by MeteoGalicia (Xunta de Galicia) from its web page is acknowledged This work was partially funded by Galician R&D Programme under project 07REM02CT.

References

[1] Institute Enerxetico de Galicia. Enema solar fotovoltaica na comunidade autonoma de Galicia. Conselleria de Inovacion, Industria e Comercio. Xunta de Galicia; 2003.

[2] Font Tullot I. Atlas de la radiacion solar en Espana. Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia, Ministerio de Transportes, Turismo y Comunicaciones. Madrid, Spain; 1984.

[3] Vera Mella N. Atlas climatico de irradiacion solar a partir de imagenes del satelite NOAA. Aplicacion a la peninsula iberica. PhD thesis. Univ. Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona; 2005.

[4] Vazquez Vazquez M., Santos Navarro J. M., Prado Cerqueira M. T., Vazquez Rios D., Rodrigues Fernandes F. M. Atlas de radiacion solar de Galicia. Universidad de Vigo. Vigo, Espana; 2005.

[5] Rigollier, C., Lefevre, M. and Wald, L. The method Heliosat-2 for deriving shortwave solar radiation from satellite images. Solar Energy 2004; 77: 159-169.

[6] Salson S., Souto J. A. Automatic weather stations network of the department of environment of Galicia: data acquisition, validation and quality control, Proceedings of the 3rd international conference on experiences with automatic weather stations, Torremolinos, Spain; 2003.

[7] Pettazzi A., Souto J. A., Salson S. EOAS, a shared joint atmospheric observation site of MeteoGalicia. Proceedings of 4th ICEAWS — International Conference on Experiences with Automatic Weather Stations, Lisbon, Portugal; 2006.

[8] Davies J. A. Validation of models for estimating solar radiation on horizontal surfaces. Report available from the IEA, Downsview, Ontario, Canada; 1988.

[9] Iqbal M. An introduction to solar radiation, Academic Press, San Diego, CA; 1983.

[10] Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia. Guia resumida del clima en Espana 1971-2000. Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia, D25.3, Ministerio de Medio Ambiente. Madrid, Espana; 2001.

[11] Batlles F. J., Martinez-Durban M., Miralles I., Ortega R., Barbero F. J., Tovar-Pescador J., Pozo — Vazquez D., Lopez G. Evaluacion de los recursos energeticos solares en zonas de topografia compleja. XII Congreso Iberico y VII Congreso Ibero Americano de Energia Solar. Vigo, Espana; 2004.