Presentation + Paper
4 March 2022 Probabilistic description of short-term cloud dynamics from rapid sampling of the solar spectral irradiance
Author Affiliations +
Abstract
Solar irradiance variability due to stochastic cloud dynamics can cause unwanted fluctuations in the output voltage of photovoltaic (PV) modules. These dynamics must in particular be understood at very-short and short time scales if grid interconnection and generation/load balance requirements are to be maintained for PV distributed across the grid edge. Using a recently-created database for Ottawa, Canada, a 6-month longitudinal study was conducted with a specific focus on cloud dynamics. A spectral pyranometer was used to derive full-range spectral and broadband global horizontal irradiance under all sky conditions every 250 ms. Exploiting the infrared (IR) measurement channel of this software-augmented multi-filter radiometer allowed the cloud dynamics to be probed across time scales ranging from the subsecond to minutes. Seven distinct sky conditions were self-consistently determined without sky imaging. Probability distributions, established via kernel density estimates (KDE), allowed the statistical dependence of these conditions on the spectral clear-sky index to be found. The stochastic nature of the spectral irradiance variability was probed using spectral clear-sky index increments, over time steps that were found to span three distinct variability regimes.
Conference Presentation
© (2022) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Nick Anderson, Viktar Tatsiankou, Karin Hinzer, Richard Beal, and Henry Schriemer "Probabilistic description of short-term cloud dynamics from rapid sampling of the solar spectral irradiance", Proc. SPIE 11996, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices XI, 119960B (4 March 2022); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2616231
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KEYWORDS
Clouds

Solar energy

Photovoltaics

Atmospheric optics

Databases

Solar cells

Data analysis

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