Image source: solarstations.org/intro.html
IEA PVPS Task 16 has just launched SolarStations.org, a global registry of ground-based solar irradiance observation stations, to be shared collectively by developers, policymakers, and scientists. The publicly available tool contains over 800 multi-component stations – more than 400 of which are operational to date – offering a comprehensive view of high-quality ground-based solar data.
Ground irradiance measurements remain the benchmark for comparing solar potential, despite enhancements to satellite and modeled products. Researchers, however, find it challenging to access credible datasets as station metadata is dispersed, inconsistent, or missing.
It addresses precisely such a challenge by providing an interactive global map and catalog, which provides information on location, possession, operating hours, data availability, instrumentation, and climate by station.
Defining Station Quality: The Tier Concept
All stations are not equal. The catalog provides a three-grade instrument and data-quality rating. The very highest standard, Tier 1, is represented by those instruments within the BSRN network that feature Class-A thermopile pyranometers and pyrheliometers installed on sun trackers to record all three components of irradiance: global horizontal irradiance (GHI), direct normal irradiance (DNI), and diffuse horizontal irradiance (DHI).
Tier 2 instruments are lower-specification instruments, with generally two-component measurements. Less accurate, they offer wider geographical coverage, especially from within the Global South. Tier 3, being below the baseline multi-component, is therefore excluded from the catalog.
This standard approach enables users to pair their data sources with their tolerance to uncertainty, considering their application, extent, and data-quality needs, which are important considerations across various applications, from PV forecasting to atmospheric modeling.
Global Existence With Inserted Blank Pages
Although lists from all continents are included, national inequalities persist. Asian stops outnumber those from any other region by a considerable margin, although a small number are from Central Africa, Western Asia, and certain parts of South America. European density tops all others, with a density exceeding nearly six per million square kilometers.
These disparities could be a side effect of a sparsely populated registry or a genuine lack of monitoring infrastructure. It should be noted here that a huge volume of their stations are offline with no publicly available metadata, which doesn’t benefit them in any degree with their usage. By crowdsourcing contributions and providing open-access metadata, SolarStations.org aims to help bridge these divides and become a dynamic, ever-updated database for the broader solar industry.
Uses Cases
It’s already being applied practically to a very broad set of applications. Three applications are provided to illustrate its potential:
- Benchmarking of Models: The IEA PVPS Task 16 benchmarking exercise already utilizes the catalog to identify sites with wider geographical and climatically varied variability.
- Quality Development Controls: Scientists who develop new data-quality algorithms scan their catalog to identify locations with extreme conditions, such as high altitudes or humid tropics, to assess how algorithms perform under a broad range of conditions.
- Validation and Project Siting: Developers can identify a nearby high-quality monitoring station for a potential solar project and verify data accessibility, thereby accelerating the siting evaluation and reducing financial risks associated with the project.
Each use case highlights how the catalog facilitates greater transparency and improved efficiencies in deploying solar energy.
Contemporary Challenges
But even the catalog indicates persistent access hurdles to solar data. Few stations, particularly those in Tier 1, provide or do not provide public data. Even where data are publicly available, format variability, unclear documentation, and maintenance challenges hinder usability. Additionally, 14% of listed stations are unrecognized, with an unclear status of their operation, further hindering their usability for research or project development.
It recommends standard data presentations, publicly accessible datasets, and institutional support to mitigate those points of friction. It recommends a worldwide network of research stations to broaden the reference data beyond those already existing legacy networks, such as the BSRN.
A Reference Resource
It’s more than a station catalog, though – it’s a communal infrastructure. Through standard metadata cataloging and distribution across irradiance monitoring stations, users across energy, climatic, and research domains gain access to improved decision-making tools.
As the world makes solar a key cornerstone of its energy infrastructure, these kinds of projects will play a crucial role in driving a transition to a cleaner energy future.
About IEA PVPS Task 16
IEA PVPS Task 16 references research and development in solar resource data and forecasting for high-penetration and large-scale solar deployments. It supports the implementation of solar energy by advancing best practices, refining the reliability of solar resource data, and developing methods to forecast access to solar energy. The Task gathers international expertise to further refine project quality and bankability by providing tools and insights crucial to developers, investors, and energy planners.
