Evaluating Real-Time-Location Solar Irradiance Data Against SOLARGIS Ground Station Solar Irradiance For The South African Sasol Solar Challenge

The South African Solar Challenge is an international event where teams build solar powered challenger vehicles, to see who can travel furthest in 8 days. Rules stipulate that the main source of power for solar vehicles should only be from solar irradiance. Global Horizontal Irradiance data is measurements that give an indication of potential power for solar vehicles and could be used to predict the range of the solar vehicles. Success in the challenge is determined by the most distance traveled by the solar car in the set time. GHI measurements are predominantly done with expensive and scarce pyranometer sensors and equipment. A substitute for a pyranometer sensor could be to access free ground solar irradiation data through sites such as SOLARGIS. This paper explores the prospect for solar teams to use local ground weather stations in South Africa as a substitute or supplement for GHI data. Evaluation took place during the 2018 challenge for relevance towards a solar challenge team. Results and discussions are in the form of correlating data from a custom designed and constructed mobile GHI measurement station that includes a pyranometer for solar irradiance measurements with the closest on route SOLARGIS station. Results could be used by future solar teams, or any other relevant application, that want to substitute or supplement SOLARGSI ground weather stations with real-time-location solar irradiance measurements. In the nearby future all vehicles might be solar powered, and results show that an accessible grid of GHI ground sensors could be beneficial.