Acquisition and Study of Global Solar Radiation in Maroua-Cameroon

Abstract

Between 1983 and 2005, sunshine duration and intensity was recorded in Maroua-Salack, but this stopped in 2005 because of logistic difficulties. Global solar radiation measurements were recently acquired in 2014 with an autonomous weather station: the Vantage Pro2 Plus. This new procedure gives clear improvements both in data facility acquisition and record reliability. A method is established in order to deduce sunshine durations from irradiations measurements. In 2014, the evaluation of sunshine duration gave 3490.86 hours, with an average of 9.57 hours per day. The consequent solar potential is about 1933.07 kW.h.m–2/year, corresponding to 5.30 kW.h.m–2⁄day. The monthly mean of hourly global solar irradiation is at the higher scale in April and at the lower scale in August, with 5.67 and 4.53 kW.h.m–2⁄day respectively. These results are compared to values obtained with empiric relations previously established for this region. They are also compared to values given by the Clean Energy Management Software system RETScreen International and to old records of Maroua-Salack station. The update of sunshine data shows an increase of the Maroua solar potential. The region needs new meteorological equipments and should exploit atmospheric data from satellite. In addition, long term measurements could improve knowledge of actual sunshine behavior in Maroua and its impact on climate and human activities. The analysis of this work provides to the Ministry of Mining Water and Energies and the National Meteorological Service a way of restarting reliable solar data acquisition and exploitation.

Keywords

• Global solar radiation; Sunshine duration; Solar potential; Autonomous weather station; Maroua