A computer model to estimate solar radiation in Vietnam

The scarcity of hourly solar radiation data for locations in Vietnam presents difficulties in using simulation packages for assessing the potential of solar energy systems in that country. This paper describes a computer model to generate daily and hourly solar radiation sequences from monthly average daily radiation values, or monthly average daily sunshine hour data. The resulting model has been tested in a number of ways. The statistics of the real and generated sequences were compared. Also the two data sequences have been used in simulation packages and design program such as f-chart and the performance of solar hot water system for the two cases compared. The results of these comparisons are also reported in this paper.