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  4. An unsupervised method for estimating the global horizontal irradiance from photovoltaic power measurements
 
research article

An unsupervised method for estimating the global horizontal irradiance from photovoltaic power measurements

Nespoli, Lorenzo  
•
Medici, Vasco
2017
Solar Energy

The precise calculation of solar irradiance is pivotal for forecasting the electric power generated by PV plants. However, on-ground measurements are expensive and are generally not performed for small and medium-sized PV plants. Satellite-based services represent a valid alternative to on-site measurements, but their space-time resolution is limited. In this paper we present a method for estimating the global horizontal irradiance (GHI) from the power measurements of one or more photovoltaic,(PV) systems located in the same neighborhood. The method is completely unsupervised and is based on a physical model of a PV plant. It can estimate the nominal power and orientation of multiple PV fields, using only the aggregated power signal from their PV power plant. Moreover, if more than one PV power plant is available, the different signals are reconciled using outliers detection and assessing shading patterns for each PV plant. Results from two case studies located in Switzerland are presented here. The performance of the proposed method at estimating GHI is compared with that of free and commercial satellite services. Our results show that the method presented here is generally better than satellite based services, especially at high temporal resolutions.

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1016/j.solener.2017.10.039
Web of Science ID

WOS:000418974500065

Author(s)
Nespoli, Lorenzo  
Medici, Vasco
Date Issued

2017

Publisher

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd

Published in
Solar Energy
Volume

158

Start page

701

End page

710

Subjects

Solar radiation

•

Signal estimation

•

Photovoltaic power systems

•

Numerical optimization

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
STI  
Available on Infoscience
January 15, 2018
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/144064
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