The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of meteorological and solar irradiance data sets for the United States and a growing list of international locations for 1998-2023. The NSRDB is updated annually and provides foundational information to support U.S. Department of Energy programs, research, industry and the general public. The NSRDB provides time-series data at 30-minute resolution of resource averaged over surface cells of 0.038 degrees in both latitude and longitude, or nominally 4 km in size. Additionally time series data at 5 minutes for the US and 10 minutes for North, Central and South America at 2 km resolution are produced from the next generation of GOES satellites and made available from 2019. The solar radiation values represent the resource available to solar energy systems. The data was created using cloud properties which are generated using the AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres-Extended (PATMOS-x) algorithms developed by the University of Wisconsin. Fast all-sky radiation model for solar applications (FARMS) in conjunction with the cloud properties, and aerosol optical depth (AOD) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) from ancillary source are used to estimate solar irradiance (GHI, DNI, and DHI). The Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) is computed for clear skies using the REST2 model. For cloud scenes identified by the cloud mask, FARMS is used to compute GHI and FARMS DNI is used to compute the Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI). The PATMOS-X model uses radiance images in visible and infrared channels from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series of geostationary weather satellites. Ancillary variables needed to run REST2 and FARMS (e.g., aerosol optical depth, precipitable water vapor, and albedo) are derived from NASA's Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis (MERRA-2) dataset. Temperature and wind speed data are also derived from MERRA-2 and provided for use in NREL's System Advisor Model (SAM) to compute PV generation.

The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) was produced by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The NSRDB update is a collection of hourly values of the three most common measurements of solar radiation (i.e., global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal) over a period of time adequate to establish means and extremes and at a sufficient number or locations to represent regional solar radiation climates. Nearly all of the solar data in the NSRDB are modeled, and only 40 sites have measured solar data - none of them with a complete period of record. Because of the data-filling methods used to accomplish the goal of serial completeness, NSRDB meteorological data are not suitable for climatological work. The meteorological fields in the NSRDB should be used only as ancillary data for solar deployment and sizing applications. Filled/interpolated meteorological data should not be used for climatic applications. (All such data are flagged.) The serially complete hourly data provided in the NSRDB update are provided in two output formats: 1) ground-based solar and meteorological dataset, and 2) 10 km gridded output produced by the SUNY model. The 1991-2010 NSRDB is an update of the 1991-2005 NSRDB released in 2006 and archived at NCDC. The updated NSRDB dataset an hourly ground-based data set of solar and meteorological fields for 1454 stations. The primary provider for ground-based data is NCDC, which are stored as site-year files in comma-separated value (CSV) American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) format. Station identification numbers use the six-digit United States Air Force (USAF) station ID numbering scheme. The measured solar radiation data came from multiple sources, including: Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program, Department of Energy Florida Solar Energy Center, State of Florida Integrated Surface Irradiance Study and Surface Radiation Budget Measurement Networks, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Air Resources Laboratory and Earth System Research Laboratory Global Monitoring Division Measurement and Instrumentation Data Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory Network University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory. All meteorological data were provided by the National Climatic Data Center from its Integrated Surface Hourly Database (ISD) product. The NSRDB Statistics Files hold summary statistics for all Class I and Class II stations. The Daily Statistics provide monthly and annual averages of solar radiation and several meteorological parameters for both annual and a 20 year roll-up. The Hourly Statistics provide average diurnal profiles by hour for each station year for each solar parameter. The Persistence Statistics provide multiple levels of persistence for up to 30 days for each station for each solar parameter. These Summary Statistics files are documented in the NSRDB User's Manual.

The UK hourly solar radiation data contain the amount of solar irradiance received during the hour ending at the specified time. All sites report 'global' radiation amounts. This is also known as 'total sky radiation' as it includes both direct solar irradiance and 'diffuse' irradiance as a result of light scattering. Some sites also provide separate diffuse and direct irradiation amounts, depending on the instrumentation at the site. For these the sun's path is tracked with two pyrometers - one where the path to the sun is blocked by a suitable disc to allow the scattered sunlight to be measured to give the diffuse measurement, while the other has a tube pointing at the sun to measure direct solar irradiance whilst blanking out scattered sun light.

For details about the different measurements made and the limited number of sites making them please see the MIDAS Solar Irradiance table linked to in the online resources section of this record.

This version supersedes the previous version of this dataset and a change log is available in the archive, and in the linked documentation for this record, detailing the differences between this version and the previous version. The change logs detail new, replaced and removed data. These include the addition of data for calendar year 2023.

The data were collected by observation stations operated by the Met Office across the UK and transmitted within the following message types: SYNOP, HCM, AWSHRLY, MODLERAD, ESAWRADT and DRADR35 messages. The data spans from 1947 to 2023.

This dataset is part of the Midas-open dataset collection made available by the Met Office under the UK Open Government Licence, containing only UK mainland land surface observations owned or operated by the Met Office. It is a subset of the fuller, restricted Met Office Integrated Data Archive System (MIDAS) Land and Marine Surface Stations dataset, also available through the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis - see the related dataset section on this record.

SOLDAY contains daily solar radiation and collateral meteorological data. The major parameters making up this data file are sunrise/sunset (local standard time), extraterrestrial radiation, direct radiation, global radiation on a horizontal surface (1. observed data, 2. engineering corrected data, 3. model corrected data), supplemental radiation measurement, minutes and percent of possible sunshine, temperature (max, min, mean), precipitation, snowfall, snow depth, days with weather, and sky cover. Daily solar radiation - surface meteorological data (SOLDAY) is a common format designed to provide quality controlled daily solar insolation and collateral meteorological data available at the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

Released to the public as part of the Department of Energy's Open Energy Data Initiative, the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of hourly and half-hourly values of the three most common measurements of solar radiation – global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal irradiance — and meteorological data. These data have been collected at a sufficient number of locations and temporal and spatial scales to accurately represent regional solar radiation climates.

The second edition of the Surface Solar Radiation Data Set - Heliosat (SARAH-2) is a satellite-based climate data record of the solar surface irradiance, the surface direct irradiance (direct horizontal and direct normalized), the sunshine duration, spectral information, and the effective cloud albedo derived from satellite-observations of the visible channels of the MVIRI and the SEVIRI instruments onboard the geostationary Meteosat satellites. The data are available from 1983 to 2015 and cover the region ±65° longitude and ±65° latitude (±60° longitude and ±60° latitude for the spectral information). The products are available as monthly and daily means, and as 30-min instantaneous data (sunshine duration is available as monthly and daily sum) on a regular latitude/longitude grid with a spatial resolution of 0.05° x 0.05° degrees. The data record is complemented with a comprehensive documentation of the algorithms used and the generation of the data record. Validation report and user guidance are available as well. This is a Thematic Climate Data Record (TCDR). An updated version of this data record is available. Users are recommended to use the edition 2.1 of this TCDR (SARAH-2.1, EO:EUM:CM:MULT:SARAH_V002_2).

Data on daily global solar radiation (Please visit the reference link for other climate information). The multiple file formats are available for datasets download in API.

Mean annual solar radiation data layer used in the creation of Land Environments of New Zealand (LENZ) classification. The classification layers have been made publicly available by the Ministry for the Environment (see https://data.mfe.govt.nz/layers/?q=LENZ for to access these layers).

Development of surfaces for annual and monthly solar radiation required substantially more data preparation than for the other climate surfaces, reflecting the small number of stations at which solar radiation has traditionally been measured.

Monthly estimates of average daily solar radiation to 1980 were available for 22 meteorological stations, but measurements of sunshine hours were available for a total of 98 stations, including 18 of the stations for which solar radiation measurements were available. To extract as much information as possible from these data, a surface was fitted first that predicted for each month the ratio of solar radiation reaching the earth's surface to that reaching the top of the atmosphere, with the latter calculated from solar geometry equations. In fitting this surface, only the 18 data points where measurements were made of both solar radiation and sunshine hours were used.

In addition to NZMG coordinates, it used as an additional predictor the ratio of measured sunshine hours for each month to the maximum possible sunshine hours given no cloud. This surface was then used to estimate the monthly solar radiation received at each of the 80 sites for which measurements of sunshine hours alone were available. Using a total of 98 sites for which solar radiation data were either measured directly or estimated from sunshine hours, surfaces predicting annual and monthly solar radiation were then fitted. Data describing monthly humidity was used as a surrogate measure of cloudiness to improve the fit of the surface to the underlying data. This also increases the local accuracy of the surface predictions, as the number of meteorological stations used to fit the humidity surface is more than three times greater than the number of sites used to fit the solar radiation surface.

The units for this layer are in MJ/m2/day, higher values signifiy areas that have higher levels of solar radiation. This layer has been multiplied by a factor of 10 (i.e. converted into an integer grid) to save space and make the grids more responsive. A value of 123 is actually 12.3 MJ/m2/day.

Additional details such as the climate station locations used in the creation of the layer and error maps are defined in the attached LENZ Technical Guide.

description: The National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) is the most comprehensive collection of solar data freely available. It is a serially complete collection of meteorological and solar irradiance data sets for the United States and a growing list of international locations. The data are publicly available at no cost to the user. The NSRDB provides foundational information to support U.S. Department of Energy programs, research, and the general public. Comparable products are also available from commercial vendors.; abstract: The National Solar Radiation Data Base (NSRDB) is the most comprehensive collection of solar data freely available. It is a serially complete collection of meteorological and solar irradiance data sets for the United States and a growing list of international locations. The data are publicly available at no cost to the user. The NSRDB provides foundational information to support U.S. Department of Energy programs, research, and the general public. Comparable products are also available from commercial vendors.

Daily Solar Radiation Data is historical data set DSI-9726 archived at the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC). Elements included are total radiation per day (Langley's), total extraterrestrial radiation, minutes/percent of possible of sunshine, average cloudiness and percent of possible radiation. The dataset covers stations in the United States, Canada, Iceland, West Indies, and the Pacific Islands. Four stations have records beginning December 1, 1951. The majority of stations began taking records in July of 1952. The period of record ends in December 1976. Stations measuring hemispheric solar radiation had a pyrheliometer installed in a suitable exposed location and a recorder installed in the office. Thermo-electric hemisphere pyrheliometers were used in measuring hemispheric solar radiation. Two types were in use: A 10-Junction type in general use, and a more sensitive 50-Junction type used at selected northern stations during months when solar radiation is less intense. Beginning in 07/01/57, solar radiation data was recorded in the international pyrheliometer scale of 1956. This scale provides values that are 2.0% less than those based on the Smithsonian Scale of 1913, the standard previously in use.

Developed by SOLARGIS and provided by the Global Solar Atlas (GSA), this data resource contains solar resource data for: direct normal irradiation (DNI), global horizontal irradiation (GHI), diffuse horizontal irradiation data (DIF), and global irradiation for optimally tilted surfaces (GTI), all in kWh/m² covering the globe. Data is provided in a geographic spatial reference (EPSG:4326). The resolution (pixel size) of solar resource data (GHI, DIF, GTI, DNI) is 9 arcsec (nominally 250 m). Due to the large amount of data, the coverage has been divided into eight segments. Four segments for the North hemisphere: WWN (West-west-north), WN (West-north), EN (East-north), EEN (East-east-north). Analogically four segments for the South hemisphere: WWS, WS, ES, EES. The data is hyperlinked under 'resources' with the following characteristics: DNI LTAy_AvgDailyTotals (GeoTIFF) Data format: raster (gridded), GEOTIFF File size : 343.99 MB For individual country or regional data downloads please see: https://globalsolaratlas.info/download (use the drop-down menu to select country or region of interest) For data provided in AAIGrid please see: https://globalsolaratlas.info/download/world. For more information and terms of use, please, read metadata, provided in PDF and XML format for each data layer in a download file. For other data formats, resolution or time aggregation, please, visit Solargis website. Data can be used for visualization, further processing, and geo-analysis in all mainstream GIS software with raster data processing capabilities (such as open source QGIS, commercial ESRI ArcGIS products and others).

In this dataset the anther's analysis is based on data from NREL about Solar & Wind energy generation by operation areas.

NASA Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources

Solar

Monthly averages for global horizontal radiation over 22-year period (Jul 1983

• Jun 2013)

Wind

Monthly average wind speed at 50m above the surface of earth over a 30-year period (Jan 1984 - Dec 2013)Year: Averaged Over 10 to 15 years

COA = central operating area.

EOA = eastern operating area.

SOA = southern operating area.

WOA = western operating area. Source: NRELSource Link

This web layer provides relevant information of solar power potential for energy generation. It is a project administered by the World Bank Group as part of the Energy Sector Assistance Program (ESMAP). The Global Solar Atlas was implemented by Solargis. The goal of the atlas is to expose solar resource and photovoltaic power potential data.Output variables as processing templates:PV electricity output: Total electrical energy produced per capacity installed (kWh/kWp) per yearMonthly PV electricity output (12 layers): Average monthly electrical energy produced per capacity installed (x1,000 kWh/kWp) per day.Direct normal irradiation: Amount of solar energy per unit area (kWh/m2) coming from a direct (i.e. perpendicular) pathDiffuse horizontal irradiation: Amount of solar energy per unit area (kWh/m2) received from scattered sources (e.g. clouds)Global horizontal irradiation: Amount of solar radiation received (kWh/m2) at a theoretical plane horizontal to the groundGlobal tilted irradiation at optimum angle: Largest amount of solar radiation that can be received (kWh/m2) at the ground at the optimum angle (i.e. OPTA)Optimum tilt of PV modules: Optimal angle (segrees) of a plane that receives the highest solar radiation.Air temperature: Annual average of air temperature (°C) at 2m from the groundElevation: Elevation (m) above mean sea level.What can you do with this layer?This layer can be used to primarily to estimate the total energy yield of a PV system and its inter-annual variation or compare energy yield between sites. The layer can also be used to determine the optimal angle of PV panels and quantify the gap between received radiation at a horizontal plane against the radiation received in a plane tilted at the optimal angle. This layer can also be used to quantify the difference between direct and diffuse irradiation for a given location. Additionally, the layer provides information on the mean air temperature and elevation used in the model.Associated web mapsPV electricity outputHorizontal and tilted irradiationsDirect and diffuse irradiationsCell Size: 30 arc-secondsSource Type: ContinousPixel Type: IntegerProjection: GCS WGS84Extent: GlobalSource: Global Solar AtlasArcGIS Server URL: https://earthobs3.arcgis.com/arcgis

Ground measured solar irradiation and meteorological data for Dodoma and Shinyanga up to 31 Dec 2021 and Dar Es Salaam up to 30 Nov 2022. Ground measured solar irradiation and meteorological data for Makunduchi can be found under Zanzibar. URL: energydata.info/dataset/zanzibar-solar-radiation-measurement-data

This dataset provides historical values of global, direct and diffuse solar irradiation, as well as direct normal irradiation, on a latitude/longitude grid covering land surfaces and coastal areas of Europe, Africa, Oceania, Eastern South America, the Middle East and South-East Asia. It is created from 15 minute resolved timeseries at each grid point. These timeseries were calculated by the CAMS Solar Radiation Time Series Service and use information on aerosol, ozone and water vapour from the CAMS global forecasting system. Other properties, such as ground albedo and ground elevation, are also taken into account. Data is provided for both clear-sky and observed cloud conditions. For cloudy conditions high-resolution cloud information is directly inferred from satellite observations provided by the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) and Himawari 8 satellites. It is the Himawari satellite that provides the Asian coverage, which is only available from 2016 and v4.6 (rev2) onwards. The aim of the dataset is to fulfil the needs of European and national policy development and the requirements of both commercial and public downstream services, e.g. for planning, monitoring, efficiency improvements and the integration of solar energy systems into energy supply grids. Data is offered in monthly netCDF formatted files.

The solar radiation data provided by SILO are an estimate of the total incoming solar energy incident upon the Earth's surface at a given location. The estimate includes contributions from both the direct and diffuse components of solar exposure. It can be calculated from data measured directly by radiometers and indirectly from observational estimates of cloudiness and hours of sunshine duration.

Description
This repository contains a comprehensive solar irradiance, imaging, and forecasting dataset.
The goal with this release is to provide standardized solar and meteorological datasets to the research community for the accelerated development and benchmarking of forecasting methods.
The data consist of three years (2014–2016) of quality-controlled, 1-min resolution global horizontal irradiance and direct normal irradiance ground measurements in California.
In addition, we provide overlapping data from commonly used exogenous variables, including sky images, satellite imagery, Numerical Weather Prediction forecasts, and weather data.
We also include sample codes of baseline models for benchmarking of more elaborated models.

Data usage
The usage of the datasets and sample codes presented here is intended for research and development purposes only and implies explicit reference to the paper:
Pedro, H.T.C., Larson, D.P., Coimbra, C.F.M., 2019. A comprehensive dataset for the accelerated development and benchmarking of solar forecasting methods. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 11, 036102. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5094494

Although every effort was made to ensure the quality of the data, no guarantees or liabilities are implied by the authors or publishers of the data.

Sample code
As part of the data release, we are also including the sample code written in Python 3.
The preprocessed data used in the scripts are also provided.
The code can be used to reproduce the results presented in this work and as a starting point for future studies.
Besides the standard scientific Python packages (numpy, scipy, and matplotlib), the code depends on pandas for time-series operations, pvlib for common solar-related tasks, and scikit-learn for Machine Learning models.
All required Python packages are readily available on Mac, Linux, and Windows and can be installed via, e.g., pip.

Units
All time stamps are in UTC (YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS).
All irradiance and weather data are in SI units.
Sky image features are derived from 8-bit RGB (256 color levels) data.
Satellite images are derived from 8-bit gray-scale (256 color levels) data.

Missing data
The string "NAN" indicates missing data

File formats
All time series data files as in CSV (comma separated values)
Images are given in tar.bz2 files

Files

• Folsom_irradiance.csv Primary One-minute GHI, DNI, and DHI data.
• Folsom_weather.csv Primary One-minute weather data.
• Folsom_sky_images_{YEAR}.tar.bz2 Primary Tar archives with daytime sky images captured at 1-min intervals for the years 2014, 2015, and 2016, compressed with bz2.
• Folsom_NAM_lat{LAT}_lon{LON}.csv Primary NAM forecasts for the four nodes nearest the target location. {LAT} and {LON} are replaced by the node’s coordinates listed in Table I in the paper.
• Folsom_sky_image_features.csv Secondary Features derived from the sky images.
• Folsom_satellite.csv Secondary 10 pixel by 10 pixel GOES-15 images centered in the target location.
• Irradiance_features_{horizon}.csv Secondary Irradiance features for the different forecasting horizons ({horizon} 1⁄4 {intra-hour, intra-day, day-ahead}).
• Sky_image_features_intra-hour.csv Secondary Sky image features for the intra-hour forecasting issuing times.
• Sat_image_features_intra-day.csv Secondary Satellite image features for the intra-day forecasting issuing times.
• NAM_nearest_node_day-ahead.csv Secondary NAM forecasts (GHI, DNI computed with the DISC algorithm, and total cloud cover) for the nearest node to the target location prepared for day-ahead forecasting.
• Target_{horizon}.csv Secondary Target data for the different forecasting horizons.
• Forecast_{horizon}.py Code Python script used to create the forecasts for the different horizons.
• Postprocess.py Code Python script used to compute the error metric for all the forecasts.

Solar Resource Areas created were produced using a k-means method that groups solar generating plants into discrete regions based on their latitude, longitude, and distance to the coast. After facilities were grouped, the outermost facilities in each region were connected to create the boundaries for each region. To include all facilities inside each polygon, a 5 km buffer was used. Plants that are farther from a concentration of other plants are not included in a region and are instead displayed as outlying facilities. Areas outside California included in the the regions are a result of the mapping process and are not representing actual solar generating facilities. Based on the Quarterly Fuel and Energy Report dataset, this map focuses on data from plants of at least 1 MW capacity (commercial scale) and excludes smaller plants.

Average of the hourly Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) over 17 years (1998-2014). Data extracted from the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) developed using the Physical Solar Model (PSM) by National Renewable Energy Laboratory ("NREL"), Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC, U.S. Department of Energy ("DOE"). The current version of the National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) (v2.0.1) was developed using the Physical Solar Model (PSM), and offers users the solar resource datasets from 1998 to 2014). The NSRDB comprises 30-minute solar and meteorological data for approximately 2 million 0.038-degree latitude by 0.038-degree longitude surface pixels (nominally 4 km2). The area covered is bordered by longitudes 25° W on the east and 175° W on the west, and by latitudes -20° S on the south and 60° N on the north. The solar radiation values represent the resource available to solar energy systems. The AVHRR Pathfinder Atmospheres-Extended (PATMOS-x) model uses half-hourly radiance images in visible and infrared channels from the GOES series of geostationary weather satellites, a climatological albedo database and mixing ratio, temperature and pressure profiles from Modern Era-Retrospective Analysis (MERRA) to generate cloud masking and cloud properties. Cloud properties generated using PATMOS-x are used in fast radiative transfer models along with aerosol optical depth (AOD) and precipitable water vapor (PWV) from ancillary sources to estimate Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) and Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI). A daily AOD is retrieved by combining information from the MODIS and MISR satellites and ground-based AERONET stations. Water vapor and other inputs are obtained from MERRA. For clear sky scenes the direct normal irradiance (DNI) and GHI are computed using the REST2 radiative transfer model. For cloud scenes identified by the cloud mask, Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar applications (FARMS) is used to compute the GHI. The DNI for cloud scenes is then computed using the DISC model. The data in this layer is an average of the hourly GHI over 17 years (1998-2014). NOTE: The Geographical Information System (GIS) data and maps for solar resources for Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI) and Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) were developed by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and provided for Canada as an estimate. At present, neither the NREL data, nor the Physical Solar Model (PSM) on which the NREL data is based, have been either assessed or validated for the particular Canadian weather applications. A Canadian GHI map developed by the department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is based on the State University of New York (SUNY) model and has been assessed and validated for the particular Canadian weather applications. The Canadian GHI map is available at http://atlas.gc.ca/cerp-rpep/en/.

Data repository for measurements from a solar measurement station in Bangladesh. Data will be uploaded in batches, on a monthly basis, and will transmit daily reports on 1 minute average values for solar radiation levels, temperature, air pressure and wind speed. For download access to GIS layers, please visit the Global Solar Atlas: http://globalsolaratlas.info/