Accurate prediction of solar radiation using Energy3D: Part III

Predicted and measured average daily insolation for 80 cities.

In Parts I and II, we have documented our progress on solar radiation modeling with our Energy3D CAD software. In the past few weeks, our summer interns Siobhan Bailey from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Shiyan Jiang from University of Miami, and I have collected data for 167 worldwide locations. We analyzed 100 US locations among them and compared the insolation data calculated by Energy3D for a horizontal surface and a south-face vertical surface with 30 years of data collected by the US Department of Energy. The results show that, on average, the calculated mean daily insolation is within ±14% of error range compared with the measured results for a horizontal surface and ±10% of error range compared with the measure results for a south-facing vertical surface, respectively. The calculation of the average accuracy is based on both temporal data of 12 months over a year and spatial data of 100 locations in the US.

With this crystal ball in the hand to predict solar radiation anywhere anytime with a reasonable accuracy, Energy3D can be used by professional engineers for real-world applications related to solar energy, such as passive solar architecture, urban planning, solar park optimization, solar thermal power plants, and so on. Stay tuned for our future reports of those applications.

Go to Part I and Part II.