Solar irradiance and exploitation of the Sun's power

Climate change forces humanity to turn to sustainable and renewable energy sources and one of the most abundant is solar energy. The sun's radiation reaches the Earth's surface passing through a series of interferences due to airborne particles, clouds, and weather conditions, which have as result its reflection, scattering, and absorption. Photovoltaic (PV) systems is one of the most promising structures for the exploitation of solar energy. For the design, implementation, and efficient operation of these systems, the weather-dependent production plays a key role and determines the balance between production and demand. To enhance their efficient control and improve the accuracy of information on the availability of solar radiation, higher quality solar radiation data and validated forecasts are essential for planning and for deployment purposes. Modern technologies for solar energy conversion are mainly based in PV facilities and Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV) facilities. The advantage of CPV over PV cells is that it is more cost-effective and has increased efficiency and higher daily productivity due to sun tracking. Another aspect, Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) technologies, which unlike PV technologies, do not use solar cells to generate current from solar energy. Instead, CSPs use mirrors or lenses to focus (concentrate) sunlight which is then converted into heat that creates steam and drives a turbine generating electrical power. Many studies have focused on the benchmarking of different approaches to forecast solar irradiance in different study areas and the aim behind all these studies was to predict operational solar energy. Clouds, aerosols, molecules, and dust are the main factors that new technologies, algorithms, and studies are trying to forecast and analyze in order to take full advantage of solar energy and the possibilities it provides.