Developing a spatially and temporally explicit solar resource dataset for Great Britain

Abstract

Existing dispatch and infrastructure investment tools for modelling the Scottish energy system do not currently include solar photovoltaic resource. This study describes the development of three spatially and temporally explicit solar resource datasets for use in these models, for domestic, commercial roof-mounted and ground-mounted arrays. They include the whole of Great Britain (GB) and are based on empirical weather data for 2000–2015. They are expected to be a valuable resource for energy system modelling in GB.

Keywords

• geophysics computing
• solar power
• sunlight
• solar cell arrays
• investment
• building integrated photovoltaics
• photovoltaic power systems
• spatially resource dataset
• temporally explicit solar resource dataset
• great britain
• valuable resource
• dispatch
• infrastructure investment tools
• scottish energy system
• solar photovoltaic resource