Empirical Model for Estimating Global Solar Radiation on Horizontal Surfaces for Selected Cities in the Six Geopolitical Zones in Nigeria

Abstract

This study proposes a temperature-based model of monthly mean daily global solar radiation on horizontal surfaces for selected cities, representing the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The modelling was based on linear regression theory and was computed using monthly mean daily data set for minimum and maximum ambient temperatures. The results of three statistical indicators: Mean Bias Error (MBE), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and t-statistic (TS), performed on the model along with practical comparison of the estimated and observed data, validate the excellent performance accuracy of the proposed model.