Prediction of Global Solar Radiation in India Using Artificial Neural Network

Abstract

Increasing global warming and decreasing fossil fuel reserves has necessitated the use of renewable energy resources like solar energy in India. To maximize return on a solar farm, it had to be set up at a place with high solar radiation. The solar radiation values are available only for a small number of places and must be interpolated for the rest. This paper utilizes Artificial Neural Network in interpolation, by obtaining a function with input as combinations of 7 geographical and meteorological parameters affecting radiation, and output as global solar radiation. Data considered was of past 9 years for 13 Indian cities. Low error values and high coefficient of determination values thus obtained, verified that the results were accurate in terms of the original solar radiation data known. Thus, artificial neural network can be used to interpolate the solar radiation for the places of interest depending on the availability of the data.

Keywords

• Global solar Radiation (GSR)
• Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
• Neurons
• Geographical Parametrs
• Meteorological Parametrs
• Sunshine duration
• Maximum Temperature
• Relative Humidity