Don't you really trust your pyranometer data? Neither do we. That’s why we invested heavily in delivering bankable satellite-based irradiation data in the past decade. Because no matter how you spin it, reliable irradiance data are indispensable for your performance monitoring and yield assessments.
Bankable satellite-based irradiation data
With an overall bias error in the order of ±2.5% 3E has proven to be a bankable satellite-based irradiation data provider. By combining advanced physical cloud-models with parallax corrections, high accuracy is assured even at high temporal resolutions.
EURAC research has validated 3E’s solar irradiation data for 79 weather stations across Europe accounting for 421 complete years’ worth of data.
The normalised mean bias error across all sites is 0.48% with a standard deviation of 2.32%. Over 70% of evaluated sites have a normalized mean bias error between 2.5% and 2.5%. Additionally, the normalised root mean square error is calculated for hourly, daily, monthly and annual data, and ranges from 2.16% for annual data to 18.02% for hourly data.
Download EURAC's report on 3E’s solar irradiation data
About EURAC Research center
Eurac Research is a private research center based in Bolzano (South Tyrol). This validation exercise was carried out by the photovoltaic energy systems (PVS) group of EURAC’s institute for renewable energy.
The PVS group is active in the research community in the fields of PV system modelling and PV system performance assessments since many years . The group has been and is currently involved as contributor, subtask leader and activity leader in Task 13 of the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Photovoltaic Power Systems Programme (PVPS), focusing on performance and reliability of PV systems.
Additionally, the PVS group operates several outdoor PV testing sites for more than ten years, collecting and analysing PV performance, irradiance, and weather data. Based on these activities, which entail the extensive use of solar irradiance data, the PVS group has produced a considerable publication record of both peer reviewed and other research in the field of PV performance and reliability including assessments and analyses of solar resource data.
Download the full Independent validation of 3E’s solar irradiation data for Europe report
