A study of the monthly insolation in Libya

Recent significant downtrend in the cost of photovoltaic (PV) modules at an average rate of 20% with each doubling of sales has accelerated their deployment around the world on a large scale. This paper presents a brief study of some of the potential impacts of the entry of grid-connected PV on the Libyan power system. Further, it also presents the observed radiations at four locations in Libya to analyze the statistical solar radiation data provided from the Solar Electricity Hand Book 2017 Edition. The solar radiation data set is analyzed using Weibull, Normal, Rayleigh and Gamma distribution. An effort has been made to find out the most suitable distribution for solar radiation data, based on two goodness of fit tests, namely Chi-Squared test and Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Root mean square error also used to determine the error. From analysis, it is concluded that Weibull and Normal distribution give the best fit for observed solar radiation.