Three Years of Observations on Global Solar Radiation at Mădârjac Weather Station (270 m) - Central Moldavian Plateau

Abstract

This study is based on 3 years of hourly observations of global solar radiation (2014-2016), at a new weather station installed in the region of Central Moldavian Plateau, at Mădârjac (47.05°N, 27.25°E, 270 m). The main characteristics of annual, monthly and daily regime of global radiation were emphasized using for comparison similar data from Iașioficial weather station. Smaller annual amount of global solar radiation than those observed in previous studies were observed, reaching 4734 MJ/m2 in Iași and 4454 MJ/m2 in Mădârjac. An altidudinal gradient of global solar radiation close to 140 MJ/m2 was identified for the hilly region of Moldova. Despite the overall higher values in Iași, 30% of days indicates higher values of this parameter at Mădârjac weather station. These results can be used for the evaluation of the photo-voltaic potential in the region, but also to understand the altitudinal differences of solar radiation in the hilly region in Moldavia, since the only long-range actinometric stations from this part of Romania, Iași and Galați, are located at low altitudes.

Keywords

• Moldova
• global solar radiation
• stratiform clouds
• photo-voltaic potential