Proposal of Models for Global Solar Radiation Estimation in Burkina Faso

The solar data used to size installations for energy needs are most often oversized. The data used are either old or suffer from the effects of climate change or from data extrapolated to a whole region. For a country with a strong sunshine all year round, it is good to compare the many models that exist to find the most suitable for the country. The distribution of solar radiation on a territory is not uniform; it depends on several geographical, meteorological and astrological parameters. In addition, solar radiation data is often not available due to the high cost of measuring equipment. To address this issue, we propose models based on easily measurable meteorological data. In this study, models are proposed for annual estimation, for estimation during the rainy season and the dry season for the localities of Dori in the North, Ouagadougou in the Center, and Bobo-Dioulasso in the South of Burkina-Faso. Regression models based on insolation duration and hybrid models for estimating global solar radiation on a horizontal surface in these localities have been proposed. The results obtained are satisfactory, with a coefficient of determination between “0.84 - 0.99” and a statistical t-test between “0 - 0.09”, showing that over 90% of solar radiation variability is explained by these models.