PRINCIPLES OF

SOLAR
RADIATION
 Contents:
• Role and potential of new and renewable source

• the solar energy option

• Environmental impact of solar power, physics of the sun

• The solar constant

• Extraterrestrial and terrestrial solar radiation

• Solar radiation on titled surface

• Instruments for measuring solar radiation and sun shine

• Solar radiation data

 Introduction
• It is the greatest energy of all the sources of all sources of renewable
energy
• Solar energy is the most readily available and free source of energy
• It is estimated that solar energy equivalent to over 15,000 times the
world's annual commercial energy consumption reaches the earth every
year.
• India receives solar energy in the region of 5 to 7 kWh/m2 for 300 to 330
days in a year.
• Solar energy can be utilized through two different routes
1. solar thermal route and
2. solar electric (solar photovoltaic) routes.

• Solar thermal route uses the sun's heat to produce hot water or air, cook
food, drying materials etc…
• Solar photovoltaic uses sun’s heat to produce electricity for lighting home
and building, running motors, pumps, electric appliances, and lighting.
 Solar energy
• Solar power where the sun hits atmosphere is 1017 watts
• Solar power on the earth surface is 1016 watts
• Sun gives 1000 times more power thane we need
• If we can use 5% of this energy, it will 50 times what the world will require
• Energy radiated by the sun appox 1KW/m2
• In general, solar energy received in the form of radiation
• Energy radiated by sun as electromagnetic waves
• Its wave length in the range of 0.2 to 4 micrometres
Advantages
• Clean
• Sustainable
• Free
• Provide Electricity to Remote Places

Major drawbacks:
• The intermittent or variable manner in which the solar energy arrives to
the earth
• Large area required to collect the energy
• It is not possible to store
Solar energy consists of,
% amount Wave length
Ultraviolet radiation 8 Small (<0.39 micrometers)
Visible light 46 Medium (0.39 to 0.78 micrometers)
Infrared radiation 46 Large (>0.78 micro meters)
Radiant Energy

The NEED Project: 30 Years of Energy

7
Education
 Environmental impact of solar power
• reduction of the CO2 emissions
• It reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and will consequently reduce the
environmental impacts associated with these fuels
• improvement of the quality of water supplies
• reclamation of degraded land
• reduction of the number of the required power transmission lines.
 Physics of sun
• Sun is a huge nuclear reactor. Its diameter is 1.39*106 KM
• Earth diameter is 1.27*104 KM
• Mean distance between these two is 1.5*108 KM
• It subtends an angle of only 32 minutes at the earth surface
• Brightness of the sun is almost varied from its centre
• It emits a great amount of radiant energy (3,8x1023 kW, 5762ºK), which
can be easily converted into thermal energy
• The Earth intercepts only 1,7x1014 kW of solar radiation
 Solar constant
Definition:
• The rate at which the solar energy arrives at the top of the atmosphere is
called solar constant (Isc)
• This is the amount of energy received in unit time on a unit area
perpendicular to the sun’s direction at the mean distance of the earth
from sun.

As per the NASA standards

• 1.353 KW per square meter
• 116.5 Langley's (calories per sq.cm.)
• 429.2 Btu per sq. ft. per hour

• The variation in the distance produces nearly a sinusoidal variation in the

intensity of the solar radiation (I)

• I/Isc = 1+0.033 cos[360(n-2)/365]

Wave length 0 – 0.38 0.38 - 0.78 >0.78
Approximate energy 95 640 618
(W/m2)
Approximate 7% 47.3% 45.7%
percentage of total
enrgy
 Solar radiation
Direct or Beam radiation:
• Solar radiation that has not been absorbed or scattered and reaches the
ground directly

Diffuse Radiation:
• It is received from the sun after its
direction has been changed by reflection
or scattering by the atmosphere

Reflect Radiation:
• It is reflected back to the space mostly
by clouds
 Solar Radiation measurements
There are two types of instruments employed for solar radiation

1. Pyrheliometer used to measure direct radiation

i. Angstrom compensation pyrheliometer
ii. The abbot silver disc pyrheliometer
iii. Eppley pyrheliometer

2. Pyranometer used to measure global radiation

i. Eppely pyranometer
ii. Yellot soarimeter
iii. Moll-gorczyheski solarimeter
iV. Bimetallic Actionographs of the rabitzsch type
V. Velochme pyranometer
Vi. Thermo elctric pyranometer etc…
 Eppley B&W Pyranometer

• The Black and White (B&W)

pyranometer is an instrument
designed to measure diffuse
broadband solar irradiance.
• The difference between PSP and
B&W are:

1. It has only one dome to filter out IR radiation coming from the atmosphere;
2. The detector is coated with white and black paint;
3. It has much less thermal mass.

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 Pyrheliometer
• A pyrheliometer is used to measure direct solar radiation from the sun
• To measure direct solar radiation correctly, its receiving surface must be
arranged to be normal to the solar direction
• the instrument is usually mounted on a sun-tracking device called an
equatorial mount
 Angstrom electrical compensation
pyrheliometer
•This is a reliable instrument used to observe direct solar radiation
• It consists of thin blackened shaded strip (20*2*0.1mm) is heated
electrically until it is the same temperature as a similar strip which is
exposed to solar radiation.

• Under steady state condition

the energy used for heating = the absorbed solar energy
Here galvanometer represents null position

• Thermocouples on the back of the each strip, connected in opposition

through a sensitive galvanometer

• Direct radiation incident on an area normal to the sun’s rays

HDN = K*i^2

• Heating current in amps I = R/Wα

• Here R = resistance per unit length
α = Absorbing coefficient of absorbing strip
Abbot silver disk pyrheliometer
• The sensing element is a silver disk measuring 28 mm in diameter with a
thickness of 7 mm that is painted black on its radiation-receiving side
• It has a hole from the periphery toward the center to allow insertion of
the bulb of a high-precision mercury-in-glass thermometer
• To maintain good thermal contact between the disk and the bulb, the hole
is filled with a small amount of mercury
• It is enclosed outside by a heat-insulating wooden container
• A cylinder with diaphragms inside is fitted in the wooden container to let
direct solar radiation fall onto the silver disk
• There is a metallic-plate shutter at the top end of the cylinder to block or
allow the passage of solar radiation to the disk
• During the measurement phase, the disk is heated by solar radiation and
its temperature rises
• The intensity of this radiation is ascertained by measuring the
temperature change of the disk between the measurement phase and the
shading phase with the mercury-in-glass thermometer
 Solar radiation data
• Most of the data on solar radiation is received on the surface of the earth
are measured by solarimeter which give instantaneous measurements
• Integrating the plot of the rate of energy received per unit area unit time
over a whole day give the langleys of radiation received on a horizontal
surface

• Daily solar radiation received in Calcutta on the basis of yearly average is

680 langleys (cal/cm2/day)
• intensity of solar radiation in India
– Average value 16700 – 29260 KJ/m2/day
– Peak value 25100 KJ/m2/day (in Rajasthan)
• Daily diffuse radiation received over whole country
– Average value 7300 KJ/m2/day
– Maximum value 12550 KJ/m2/day
– Minimum value 25100 KJ/m2/day
 Solar radiation on tilted surface
• The rate of solar energy on a given surface is depends on the orientation
of the surface
• A fully sun solar tracking surface that always faces the sun receives the
maximum possible solar energy
• the radiation on a tilted surface
has three components

Here

Here = 0.2 when there is no snow

= 0.7 when there is a snow cover