Stochastic Generation of Solar Radiation using Sunshine Duration in Algeria

Algeria is a solar country with a very high number of sunny days. The utilization of solar energy for national growth across all sectors is attracting the attention of national energy policies more and more. Therefore, it is important to know the most favorable location to install the solar stations. Unfortunately, due to the high cost of the necessary tools and methods, there are only a few countries with sufficient data on solar radiation. So, it is crucial to provide straight forward techniques for estimating the amount of solar energy that reaches the earth’s surface using current meteorological data, such as the sunshine duration. The proposed methodology has been applied to three case studies with different climate zones (coastal, central, and oasis) to investigate how database patterns impact prediction performance. The results showed a strong correlation between the measured and generated data; it ranged from 0.97 to 0.87. The outcome of this study reveals more opportunities to discover optimal prediction results. When applied to solar power plants, the model could prove beneficial, particularly for short-term forecasting.