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doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2008.01.048    
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Copyright © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Fast clear-sky solar irradiation computation for very large digital elevation models

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L.F. Romeroa, 1, Siham Tabika, Corresponding Author Contact Information, 1, E-mail The Corresponding Author, Jesús M. Víasb and Emilio L. Zapataa

aDepartment of Computer Architecture, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain

bDepartment of Geography, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain


Received 20 August 2007; 
revised 9 January 2008; 
accepted 20 January 2008. 
Available online 7 February 2008.

Abstract

This paper presents a fast algorithm to compute the global clear-sky irradiation, appropriate for extended high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The latest equations published in the European Solar Radiation Atlas (ESRA) have been used as a starting point for the proposed model and solved using a numerical method. A new calculation reordering has been performed to (1) substantially diminish the computational requirements, and (2) to reduce dependence on both, the DEM size and the simulated period, i.e., the period during which the irradiation is calculated. All relevant parameters related to shadowing, atmospheric, and climatological factors have been considered. The computational results demonstrate that the obtained implementation is faster by many orders of magnitude than all existing advanced irradiation models while maintaining accuracy. Although this paper focuses on the clear-sky irradiation, the developed software also computes the global irradiation applying a filter that considers the clear-sky index.

Keywords: Clear-sky irradiation; Large DEMs; Large simulated periods; Climatological parameters; Discretization; Sky-map; Horizon computation algorithm

PACS classification codes: 92.60.Vb; 87.15.Aa; 89.30.Cc

Article Outline

1. Introduction
2. Mathematical formulation
3. Numerical integration
3.1. Sky discretization
3.2. Stage 1: Sun trajectory calculation
3.3. Stage 2: Height discretization
3.4. Stage 3: Horizon and slope discretization
3.5. Clear-sky irradiation
3.6. Real-sky irradiation
4. Computational and numerical results
4.1. Computational cost independent on time-interval
4.2. r.sun versus our model
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
References









Corresponding Author Contact InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +34 952 13 41 69; fax: +34 952 13 27 90.
1 Both authors contributed equally to this work.

 
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