Quality assurance of solar radiation measurements

Abstract

Solar radiation measurements are necessary for every solar energy project to evaluate solar resource assessment studies. Quality assurance of solar radiation measurements is essential in all the stages of solar resource analysis. Model development and assessment, improvement of models and characterisation of the uncertainty, among others features, depend strongly on the accuracy and quality efforts in designing and operating the solar radiation ground station. This chapter summarises several aspects involved in ensuring the quality of solar radiation measurements, addressing the requirements for instrument selection and the quality methods applied to solar radiation data. This chapter has been written intended to be useful for project or group leaders involved in solar resource assessment and not a rigorous scientist text since the chapter presents a summary of many manuals for quality control.