Solar Energy Forecasting and Resource Assessment

Chapter 6

Solar Resource Variability

Richard Perez,    Atmospheric Sciences Research Center, University at Albany

Thomas E. Hoff,    Clean Power Research

Chapter Outline

6.1. Introduction

6.2. Quantifying Solar-Resource Variability

6.3. The Dispersion-Smoothing Effect

6.4. The General Case of an Arbitrarily Dispersed Fleet of Solar Generators

6.5. Variability Impact on the Distribution and Transmission System

6.6. A Final Note on the Smoothing Effect

References 

6.1 Introduction

In this chapter, we focus on the short-term temporal variability of the solar resource caused by weather and passing clouds, corresponding to timescales of seconds to tens of minutes. This type of variability is illustrated in Figure 6.1.

FIGURE 6.1 Global irradiance ...