Analyzing Solar Resource Variability: A Case Study in Taiwan

Analyzing solar resource variability plays a crucial role in the rapid growth of photovoltaic interconnections. The statistics of solar-resource variability can provide useful information to system operators for planning primary frequency regulation, various types of reserves, or even storage systems. This paper surveys various well-established metrics to evaluate solar resource variability. The measured data with a 5-min resolution at eight PV sites in Taiwan were collected. These data include solar irradiance and solar power generation throughout 2019. The analyses include the temporal or spatial variability on both irradiance and solar power. Additionally, the correlation among various variability metrics are also examined in this paper.