Evaluation of horizontal surface solar radiation levels in southern Nigeria

Abstract

Solar energy, which is inexhaustible and abundant, has become an economically viable and environmentally preferable alternative to fossil fuels. There is the inherent advantage of solar energy in mitigation of climate change, generation of employment, and reduction of poverty, as well as increased energy security and supply. It is therefore important to continue to evaluate the global solar radiation levels in countries such as Nigeria with considerably high solar energy potential. In this paper, we report such evaluation for southern Nigeria; in particular, the correlations of meteorological estimates from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and calculated Hargreaves estimates for this region of Nigeria (latitude of 4.75°–7.77°N and longitude of 3.33°–8.32°E) are carried out and the results show a good agreement in all the sites, thereby strengthening the case we make for decentralized renewable energy investments in the region.

Estimation of direct normal irradiance under various sky condi-tions in data sparse tropical ecological zones in Nigeria

“…This reveals that Hb is optimally controlled by clearness index under all sky conditions in the Southern Nigeria. These results agreed favorably with the report in Southern Nigeria [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The weather conditions of the Northern tropical zones located between the latitude 9.067 and 13.…”

“…While the minimum clearness index of 0.333 was recorded during the months of July and September for Port Harcourt under all sky conditions compared to higher value of 0.52 recorded in the month of February for Owerri in the same tropical zone under clear sky conditions as expected for tropical site. This value is in agreement with the report in Southern Nigeria [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]. This is due to the presence of relatively higher cloud cover, relative humidity, prolonged rainy season and more absorption of diffuse solar radiation and near infrared radiation (NIR) in the solar spectrum thereby producing low magnitude of Hb received in the zone.…”

“…These results fall within the report of several researchers in Nigeria literature [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. Using the weather classification proposed by Iqbal [7] which are: (1) heavily overcast weather (kt ≤ 0.4); (2) partly overcast weather (0.6 ≤ kt ≤ 0.4); and (3) clear weather (kt ≥ 7).…”

Hydro-based, renewable hybrid energy sytem for rural/remote electrification in Nigeria

“…Southern Nigeria [14]. n this paper will be a heme and a photovoltaic ltaic system sizing renewable energy y from installations to ot to oversize or undersize.…”

A Typical Meteorological Year Generation Based on NASA Satellite Imagery (GEOS-I) for Sokoto, Nigeria

“…Satellite and model-based products have been shown to be accurate enough to provide reliable solar and meteorological resource data over regions where surface measurements are sparse or nonexistent [17,18]. This advantage of wide GEOS-1 data coverage has been utilized in the work of Dike et al, [19] for correlating meteorological estimates for seventeen locations within the southern region of Nigeria while Fadare [20] adopted the same dataset for modeling solar energy potential in Nigeria.…”