Estimation of Solar Radiation for Greenhouse Production in China

Yiping Yao 1,2

1. College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China; 2. Zhejiang climate center, Hangzhou, China e-mail: yyp96121@163.com Fangping Deng College of Resources Science and Technology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China e-mail: dengfp@gmail.com
AbstractSolar radiation data is essential to the work of energy planners, engineers and agricultural scientist. In this study, the solar radiation model was developed using the measurements from the 101 solar radiation observation stations in China. The average daily radiation on horizontal surfaces in 621 meteorological stations was estimated by the model with the sunshine hours and geographic information. And the spatial distribution of solar radiation in China was obtained via inverse distance weighing (IDW) methods. Then the solar radiation data related to energy consumption for greenhouse production were analyzed. Solar radiation resources during the suitable period, heating period, and ventilation period of greenhouse crops production show different spatial characteristics. The result is helpful in greenhouse plan and design. Keywords- solar radiation; renewable energy resources; greenhouse production; China

Gaoli Su
Zhejiang climate center, Hangzhou, China e-mail: gaolisu@gmail.com

Weihong Luo College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China e-mail: lwh@njau.edu.cn

greenhouses have been used to produce vegetables in winter, late fall and early spring since the 1980s [8]. Due to the cost and difficulty in measurement, the observation data of solar radiation are often missing or unavailable in most areas. A lot of solar radiation simulation models were developed, ranging from very complicated computer codes to empirical relations [9],[10],[11],[12],[13]. Several empirical models have been developed to calculate global solar radiation using various parameters including the sunshine hours, cloudy cover, air temperature and geographical information. Although site-specific regression equations requires sets of solar radiation measurements to determine the equation coefficients, these approaches are frequently employed, attributed to their simpler computability and sometimes more accurate than complicated mechanistic models[4]. In China, the extensive networks of weather stations provide reliable long-term sunshine hours data which closely correlated with the solar radiation. The objectives of this paper are to develop a model to predict average daily global radiation on horizontal surfaces in China only using sunshine hours and geographic information (i.e. latitude, longitude, and elevation) at the meteorological stations in China. And the spatial distribution of solar energy resource during the suitable period, heating period, and cooling period for greenhouse crops production will be analyzed on the basis of the radiation model. II. DATA AND METHODS

I.

INTRODUCTION

Global climate change is a significant long-term challenge for human beings. The global warming observed over the past fifty years is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases [1]. Many proposed strategies to limit the magnitude of future climate change focus on new energy technologies including renewable energy resources and nuclear energy[2],[3]. Solar energy is an integral part of different renewable energy resources, which is expected to play a very significant role in the future especially in developing countries [4]. The solar radiation data is an essential to the work of the potential assessment, design, planning and performance monitoring of solar energy systems. The intensity of incoming solar radiation is an important parameter for influencing the photosynthetic activity of plants. The choice of the sites for the installation of photovoltaic systems and the analysis of their performances require the knowledge of the solar irradiation data[5]. Solar energy is the most cost effective means for greenhouse heating or cooling [6], [7]. In middle and northern China, simple, inexpensive and energy on serving solar energy

A. Description of Data Two data sets span 30-year period from 1971 to 2000 were applied in this study. One is the daily meteorological data, including global solar radiation and sunshine hours from the 101 radiation measurements stations in China. Another is the daily sunshine hours and temperature data from 621 meteorological stations in China. Both data sets were obtained

978-1-4244-6255-1/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

from the Meteorological Information Center of Chinese Meteorological Administration. The data from the 101 solar radiation stations were divided into two parts, the measurements in odd-numbered years were applied for training models, and those in even-numbered years were used to validation. The data from the 621 stations were applied to generate the daily global solar radiation in China during the greenhouse crop production. B. The solar radation model The monthly-averaged daily solar radiation model was developed according to the Angstrom regression equation [14],[15]:

III.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. Model Performance Four statistical indices, i.e. the coefficient of determination (R2), the root mean square error (RMSE), the mean bias error (MBE), and the mean absolute bias error (MABE) was applied to evaluate the performance of the solar radiation model. The coefficient of determination (R2) is the ratio of explained variation to the total variation. It lies between zero and one. A high value of R2 is desirable as this shows a lower unexplained variation. R2 is often used to judge the adequacy of a regression model. The MBE provides a measure of the overall trend of a given model, i.e. predominantly overestimating (positive values) or underestimating (negative values). An MBE nearest to zero is desired. The root mean square (RMSE) gives a value of the level of scatter that the regression model produces. This is an important statistical index, because it explains the readability and repeatability of the model. It provides a term-by-term comparison of the actual deviation between the predicted and the measured values. Since it is a measure of the absolute deviation, RMSE is always positive. A lower absolute value of RMSE indicates a better model. The mean absolute bias error (MABE) is similar to RMSE and provides a measure of absolute deviations. The results of the performance of the global daily solar radiation were listed in Table I. The solar radiation model fits excellent to the training data, with value of R2 being 0.9062, MBE almost being zero (-0.002 MJm-2), RMSE and MABE being 1.6432 and 1.1442 MJm-2, respectively. Satisfied performance also achieved in validation data sets, with the value of R2 greater than 0.910, MBE only -0.0103 MJm-2 RMSE and MABE are respectively 1.6168 and 1.1181MJm-2. This indicated that solar radiation model can not only accuracy predict the solar radiation resources in different years, but also can well estimated the solar radiation at the independent greenhouse production regions. The predicted solar radiation of the solar radiation model vs. observed data were scatter plot in Fig.1-Fig.2. The figures shown the well fit of the model in training data and validation data.
TABLE I. Data Training R2 0.9063 0.9120 THE PERFORMANCE OF THE MODEL RMSE (MJ.m-2) 1.6432 1.6168 MBE (MJ.m-2) -0.0020 -0.0103 MABE (MJ.m-2) 1.1442 1.1181

R S = a + b + c + dh R0 S0

(1)

where R and R0 are, respectively, the average daily actual global solar radiation MJ.m-2 and extraterrestrial solar radiation, S is the average daily sunshine hours, S0 is the possible sunshine duration, and h are the latitude and the altitude(km) of the radiation observation station , respectively. The coefficients of a, b, c and d in Eq(1) were determined using the actual global daily solar radiation, sunshine hours, latitude, altitude, and extraterrestrial solar radiation from the training dataset. So the Eq (1) was rewritten as:

R S = 0.0989 + 0.5625 + 0.0017 + 0.0208h (2) R0 S0

And the solar radiation model Eq(2) has been applied to estimate the average daily solar radiation in 621 stations using meteorological data. C. Inverse distance weighted (IDW) technique To obtain the distribution map of the solar radiation resources, the point data of solar radiation data obtained above were spatial interpolated by inverse distance weighted (IDW) methods. Inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation determines cell values using a linearly weighted combination of a set of sample points. The weight is a function of inverse distance. The surface being interpolated should be that of a locationally dependent variable. The equation used is as follows:

F ( x, y ) =

w f
i =1 n

i i

w
i =1

(3)

Validation

Where n is the number of scatter points in the set, fi are the prescribed values at the scatter points (e.g. the data set values), and wi are the weight functions assigned to each scatter point. In this study we used the software ArcGIS9.0 to process the IDW interpolation [16].

Modeled values (MJ.m-2)

Fig.3 gives the spatial distribution of the average daily solar radiation in China during the suitable period of greenhouse crops production. It can be seen that the average daily solar radiation in west of China is higher than that of east where cloudy and rainy is more often. The Tibetan Plateau, Northwest China, and Inner Mongolia have the maximum solar radiation resource for the greenhouse crop production, the value of average daily solar radiation ranged from 18.026.37MJ.m-2. High solar radiation resource also found in most parts of Yunnan Province (14.016.0 MJ.m-2). Most areas in southern China has less solar radiation. The values in Sichuan, Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces are only 7.012.0 MJ.m-2. The spatial distribution of the average daily solar radiation resources in China during heating period of greenhouse crops production were presented in Fig.4. The daily solar radiation varies from the 0.0 to 20.3 MJ.m-2. The maximum values were found in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau where there are the more sunshine hours and higher atmospheric transmission. Followed are areas in Ningxia and west of Inner Mongolia. The solar radiation in Most parts of Northeast, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui Provinces is lower ( 8.010.0 MJ.m-2). The lowest value (<8.0 MJ.m-2) was in Hainan, parts of southern Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi, attribute to low sunshine hours during heating period of greenhouse crops production.

Measured values (MJ.m-2)

Figure 1. The predicted monthly average daily solar radiation vs. measured training data

Modeled values (MJ.m-2)

Measured values (MJ.m-2)

Figure 2. The predicted monthly average daily solar radiation vs. measured validation data

B. The spatial distribution of the solar radiation during the greenhouse production Based on the model above, the total solar radiation during the greenhouse production in China was estimated using the climatic data from 1970 to 2000. The results were mapped using the ArcGIS tools. We first determined the beginning and ending dates of the greenhouse crop growth in terms of the light and temperature required for crop growth and development. Then, the average daily solar radiation during the three period were calculated: (1) the period suitable for greenhouse crop production (i.e. when the air temperature is stably higher than the10 and lower than 22); (2) the period needs greenhouse heating (i.e. when the air temperature is stably lower than 10 ); (3) and the period requires for greenhouse ventilation and cooling (i.e. when the air temperature is stably higher than 22).

Figure 3. The spatial distribution of the average daily solar radiation in suitable period of greenhouse crops production(MJ.m-2)

Figure 4. The spatial distribution of the average daily solar radiation in China during heating period of greenhouse crops production

REFERENCES
[1] IPCC, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp.996, 2007. National Research Council (NRC), Advancing the Science of Climate Change. Washington D.C.: National Academies Press. pp.499,2010. Q. Volker, "Renewable energy and cliamte change", John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp.322,2010. S, Zekai, solar energy fundamentals and modeling techniques. Springer-Verlag London,pp.279,2008 G. N. Tiwari and Swapnil Dubey,"Fundamentals of photovoltaic modules and their applications". The Royal Society of Chemistry,pp.423,2010. M.S.Al-Amri Ali, Solar Energy Utilization in Greenhous Tomato Production. Agric.Sci. Vol.9. pp.21-38,1997. P.A. Davies, A solar cooling system for greenhouse food production in hot climates. Solar Energy,vol.79, pp.661668,2005. FAO. 1994. Integrated energy systems in China-The cold northeastern region experience. http://www.fao.org/docrep/T4470E/t4470e00.htm #Contents ( 2005/05/13). L. T. Wong, W. K. Chow, Solar radiation model, Appl. Energ., vol. 69, pp.191-224, 2001. T. Muneer, S. Younes, S. Munawwar, Discourses on solar radiation modeling.Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews,Vol.11, pp.551602,2007. J. Zhou, Y. Z. Wu, G. Yan, General formula for estimation of monthly average daily global solar radiation in China, Energ. Convers. Manag., vol.46, pp.257-268, 205. W.Lin and E.Lu,Validation of eight sunshine-based global radiation models with measured data at seven places in Yunnan Province,China. Energy Conversion & Management,Vol.40, pp.519-525,1999. D.L.Liu,B.J.Scott."Estimation of solar radiation in Australia from rainfall and temperature observations".Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.Vol.106, pp.41-59,2001. A. ngstrm, Solar and terrestrial radiation, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., vol. 50, pp.121-126, 1924. M. Iqbal, An Introduction to Solar Radiation, Academic Press, New York, 1983. ESRI,"Using ArcGIS Spatial Analyst: ArcGIS 9". Esri Press,pp.233, 2004.

[2] [3] [4] Figure 5. The spatital distribution of the average daily solar radiation in cooling period of greenhouse crops production(MJ.m-2) [5]

Fig.5 is the spatial distribution of the average daily solar radiation in ventilation and cooling period of greenhouse crops production (MJ.m-2). The Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan and Yunnan Province have lowest value of the solar radiation (lower than 14.0 MJ.m-2). The highest value of the daily solar radiation lies in the regions such as Inter Mongolia and Xinjiang Province (18.0 26.0MJ.m-2). The average daily solar radiation in the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujiang of South China is 14.0 16.0 MJ.m-2. Most areas of eastern China are 16.0 18.0 MJ.m-2. IV. CONCLUSION

[6] [7] [8]

[9] [10]

[11]

The average daily global solar radiation on the horizontal surface has been developed based on the solar radiation, sunshine hours, and geographic information at the 101 stations in China. The solar radiation model shows well performance with value of the coefficient of determination R2 =0.9120, the mean bias error MBE=-0.0103 MJm-2, the root mean square error RMSE=1.6168 MJm-2 and the mean absolute bias error MABE=1.1181 MJm-2. The model has been applied to estimate the solar radiation in China. The spatial distribution of global solar energy resources for greenhouse crops production during the suitable period, heating period, and cooling period were analyzed. Results show that higher solar energy resources were in north and west than south and east of China during the suitable period of greenhouse crops production. Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Ningxia and west of Inner Mongolia receive more solar radiation in heating period. Province XinJiang, Inner Mongolia obtained more solar energy during greenhouse ventilation and cooling period. ACKNOWLEDGMENT We thank Meteorological Information Center of Chinese Meteorological Administration for providing data used in our paper. This Work is supported by Meteorological new technology project of China Meteorological Administration (CMATG2006M31).

[12]

[13]

[14] [15] [16]