Solar irradiance variability around Asia Pacific: Spatial and temporal perspective for active use of solar energy

This study discusses solar irradiance variability in the spatial and temporal domains for the active use of solar energy. The spatial domain was calculated using the difference between one location and another in a focused small tile area. The principal component analysis (PCA) was used for this analysis in the spatial and temporal domain. The Umbrella Effect Index (UI) was calculated to determine the probability of an umbrella effect event within a specific time range. This study discusses solar irradiance variability using solar irradiance data analyzed every 10 min from high-temporal observations of geostationary satellites in the Asia-Pacific region. This study shows that solar heterogeneity around the Asia-Pacific ranges from 0–135 W/m2 with a high tendency in the area around the equator and highlands. In addition, this study also shows that the Asia Pacific region has umbrella effect events of approximately 50–2224 h/year with an index ranging approximately 0–0.34. This study presents the annual analysis and seasonal trends of solar irradiance variability over the entire study area. Determining seasonal trends is important because electricity demand fluctuates significantly as seasons progress. An integrated analysis of heterogeneity and UI revealed trends in spatiotemporal variations in solar irradiance. This approach provides useful information for optimizing and managing the locations for installing solar power plants. Moreover, an evaluation of existing solar power plants is presented. Evaluations based on spatiotemporal data reveal impossible characteristics using traditional approaches that use long-term simple averages or typical solar irradiance data. This research shows the distributed photovoltaic (PV) system in wide area can increase the stability of solar energy supply to the grid.