Solar radiation over Saudi Arabia and comparisons with empirical models

Abstract

We present a comparison between models developed by the present authors and 16 other models for different geographical and varied meteorological conditions. The comparisons are made using the mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE), mean percentage error (MPE), and mean absolute bias error (MABE). These errors are calculated using monthly-mean, measured daily and estimated values of total solar radiation for 41 locations in Saudi Arabia. We find that our latitude, longitude, altitude, and sunshine-duration-dependent model given in Eq. (1)produced the best estimates for global solar radiation. The second- and third-best estimates were obtained from our linear model and other models given in Eq. (2)and Eq. (11), respectively.