Solar Energy Potential of Silchar, Assam, India—A Resource Assessment

Solar energy is one of the promising renewable energy resources among all other non-conventional energy sources. Solar radiation data are required for resource assessment, model development, system design and collector testing along with other solar engineering and research. To optimise the solar technology and performances of various solar energy based equipment, solar energy assessment has to done beforehand. In our present work, our main objective is to assess solar intensity level of Silchar, Assam (India) using meteorological tools. The latitude of Silchar is 24.81 degrees N. We have collected the solar radiation data of Silchar, Assam (India) from Solar Radiation Resource Assessment (SRRA) station which is installed in NIT Silchar by MNRE (Govt. of India). The data reported is based on the readings taken during the extreme summer in this region. A pyranometer and a Pyrheliometer are installed along with the solar tracker to measure global solar insolation and direct solar insolation respectively. Diffused Radiation is measured with the help of shaded pyranometer. On an average, the daily global and diffused solar radiations are 1024 and 756 W/m(2) respectively. The average solar insolation of Silchar is 4.29 kwh/m(2)/day. It is compared with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) satellite data for Silchar, which shows the same to be 4.66 kwh/m(2)/day thereby making both the readings quite comparable. Therefore, intensity of solar radiation of this place is in the low range.