Analysis of the Monthly Average Global Solar Radiation of Awka, Anambra State

Global solar radiation is an important parameter necessary for most ecological models and serves as input for different photovoltaic conversion systems. Hence, it is of economic importance to renewable energy alternative. The data for this work were collected from Nigeria meteorological agency (NIMET). The climate parameter data collected were; measured daily global radiation (Hm), the daily extra-terrestrial solar radiation on a horizontal surface (Ho), the daily maximum temperature (Tmax), the daily minimum temperature (Tmin), the daily maximum number of hours of possible sunshine (So). The duration of record was from 2020 to 2022. The daily data were analyzed to obtain the monthly mean values for each of the parameter for the period of study. The results obtained were statistically tested using five statistical indicators, correlation coefficient®, coefficient of determination (), mean bias error (MBE) root mean square error (RMSE) and mean percentage error (MPE). The analysis shows that there is close correlation between the measured mean solar radiation and the estimated global solar radiation using our established models. The models with high value of correlation coefficient and low values of MBE, MPE and RMSE for the state was considered as the best model proved to be the best regression modal that could be used to measure solar radiation of Awka, Anambra state.