Validation of Meteonorm 8 for energy estimation of solar power plants in Sri Lanka, using PVsyst software

Abstract

The study presents a validation of using MT 8 (Meteonorm 8) international weather data provider's data for energy forecasting of photovoltaic energy. The study has used PVsyst software for a 1 MW DC photovoltaic solar power station in the Anuradhapura region, Sri Lanka, as a case study. A custom-built weather station situated at the solar power station premises has gathered weather data such as global horizontal irradiance (GHI), ambient temperature, module temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and rain data for six months. These weather station data are used as the inputs in PVsyst software for the PV energy forecasting and validating the model. Also, the study has used weather data of six months of MT8. According to the validated model, two different energy yield forecasting was done for both types of weather data, and a comparison is made with the actual PV energy generation of the solar power station with the simulation done using MT8 weather data. The simulation-based on MT8 shows a monthly generation error from -6.0% to 14.2% compared to the actual energy generation of the power station.