Improved Surface Solar Irradiation Estimation Using Satellite Data and Feature Engineering

Planning an optimal installation site to maximize power-generation efficiency is crucial for the effective operation of photovoltaic power plants. Achieving this requires accurate, reliable information on solar irradiation across different regions. However, ground-based measurements using pyranometers are resource-intensive, requiring substantial time and human effort, and their measurement range is limited, complicating data collection. To address this, we propose a method to accurately estimate surface solar irradiation (SSI) using satellite data and feature engineering. By leveraging satellite data as the primary input, we overcome the spatial and temporal limitations of ground-based measurements. Additionally, we improve SSI-estimation performance through designed features based on the geometric information of the Sun and satellite. A hybrid deep neural network model is used for SSI estimation, effectively handling data of varying dimensions. Hourly SSI data from 12 synoptic observation stations collected over one year, excluded from the model’s training and validation sets, are utilized to evaluate the proposed method. Experimental results demonstrate strong SSI-estimation performance, with an average root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.1813 MJ/m2, a relative RMSE of 0.1601, mean absolute error of 0.1159 MJ/m2, and coefficient of determination of 0.9680.