AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY BANGLADESH

RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

Report title: Measurement of Global Solar Irradiance using Pyranometer.

Section: A

Course teacher: S. M. IMRAT RAHMAN

Group No: 8

Submitted by:

Nawshad Ahmed Nihal 18-36519-1

Group members:
Aupurbo saha 18-36619-1

Muhtasim firoz 18-36503-1

Mehedi Hasan 18-36965-1

Eashan, Yead Khorshid 15-29890-2

Introduction: Solar irradiation is the power of electromagnetic radiation per unit area received
from the Sun. After atmospheric absorption and dispersal, irradiation may be monitored in space
or on the earth's surface. Solar irradiance testing and measurement has various key uses, including
the prediction of solar power generation, building heating and cooling demands and weather and
climate modeling. Solar energy affects animal behavior, and the metabolism of plants. Solar
irradiance measurement is carried out in SI measurements in watts per square meter (W/m2). A
pyranometer is a device that measures solar irradiance from a hemispherical field of view incident
on a flat surface. The SI units of irradiance are watts per square meter (W/m²). Traditionally
pyranometers were mainly used for climatological research and weather monitoring purposes,
however recent worldwide interest in solar energy have led to an increased interest in pyranometers
.

Theory and methodology:

The primary source of energy to the Earth is radiant energy from the Sun. This radiant energy is
measured and reported as the solar irradiance. When all of the radiation is measured it is called the
Total Solar Irradiance (TSI); when measured as a function of wavelength it is the spectral
irradiance. Light of different wavelengths reaches different parts of the Earth's atmosphere The
sun radiates light in wavelengths ranging from 0.15 to 4.0 m, which is referred to as the solar
spectrum. Global solar radiation is the measurement of the sun's radiation striking the planet.
Global solar radiation, sometimes referred to as short-wave radiation, refers to both direct and
diffuse solar radiation received from the hemisphere above the pyranometer's plane.

Classification of solar radiation: Solar Radiation can be classified into two types:

Direct radiation: It is also known as “beam radiation” or “direct beam radiation” is used to describe
solar radiation travelling on a straight line from the sun down to the surface of the earth.

Diffuse radiation: Diffuse radiation is solar radiation reaching earth’s surface after having been
scattered from the direct solar beam by molecules or suspensions in the atmosphere .

Direct radiation sends all of its beams in the same direction, but diffuse radiation travels in a far
more dispersed and unpredictable course. When the sun is at its highest point in the sky, direct
radiation accounts for around 85 percent of total insolation striking the earth. The percentage of
diffuse radiation increases steadily until it reaches 40% at 10° above the horizon. On a severely
gloomy day, about all of the sun radiation is dispersed.
 Fig: Direct and Diffuse radiation

There are two important types of instruments to measure solar radiation:

1. Pyrheliometer is used to measure direct beam radiation at normal incidence.

2. Pyranometers are radiometers designed for measuring the irradiance on a plane surface,
normally from solar radiation and lamps.

Fig: Pyranometer and Pyrheliometer

Three types of pyranometer can be recognized and grouped in two different technologies:
a)Thermopile technology and

b) Silicon semiconductor technology.

Thermopyle pyranometers:
A thermopile pyranometer is a sensor based on thermopiles. It measures the broad band of the
solar radiation flux density from a 180° field of view angle. The active part of the sensor is divided
into black and white sectors. Irradiation is calculated from the differential measure between the
temperature of the black sectors, exposed to the sun.

Over a wide wavelength range, the thermoelectric detection principle is used, in which incoming
radiation is almost completely absorbed by a horizontal blackened surface. The thermopile is made
up of thermocouples connected in series or series-parallel to measure the temperature increase.
The active (hot) junctions are located beneath the blackened receiver surface and are heated by the
radiation absorbed in the black coating. The passive (cold) junctions of the thermopile are in
thermal contact with the pyranometer housing, which serves as a heat-sink. More recent, higher
performance, pyranometers use a Peltier element. This is also thermoelectric, but the dissimilar
metals of a thermocouple / thermopile are replaced by dissimilar semiconductors.

Figure: Schematic of thermopile

It is necessary to protect the black detector coating against external influences which may affect
the measurement; such as precipitation, dirt and wind. Nearly all pyranometers use an optical
quality glass for their hemispherical single or double domes.

Silicon cell type pyranometer: In agricultural, meteorological, and solar energy studies, a Silicon
cell type Pyranometer is used to measure solar radiation. A high-quality silicon-cell pyranometer
can be a more cost-effective method of measuring solar radiation than a thermopile sensor. These
are extensively used in agriculture and photovoltaic (photovoltaic) energy applications. Silicon
cell pyranometers perform comparably to secondary standard reference pyranometers under clear
sky conditions. Typically, silicon photocell pyranometers are several orders of magnitude less
expensive than thermopile pyranometers. For the environmental researcher, the accuracy of silicon
photocell pyranometers is frequently sufficient. The spectral response of silicon photocell
pyranometers ranges from 0.4 to 1.1 m. Even though these pyranometers only sample a portion of
the short-wave radiation, they are calibrated to provide an output similar to thermopile sensors in
clear, sunny skies. All-sky conditions. If clouds are present, however, measurement errors
increase. This uniformity of the daylight spectrum constrains errors to less than 3% with a
maximum error of 10%. When it is cloudy, the error is positive. The downside of silicon photocell
pyranometers is that their spectral response is more narrowly restricted, from 0.4 to 1.1 m. When
it is sunny and clear, these pyranometers work best. They should not be used in vegetation canopies
or greenhouses, nor should they be used to measure reflected radiation

Figure: Silicon photocell pyranometer

Figure: Components of silicon type pyranometer

Conclusion: This experiment focuses on pyranometer. The types of parameter , its construction
and working procedure was learnt in this experiment. Moreover the theoretical principle behind
pyranometer was learnt.

References:
1. https://www.hukseflux.com/applications/solar-energy-pv-system-performance-
monitoring/what-is-a-pyranometer
2. https://www.campbellsci.com/blog/pyranometers-need-to-know
3. http://www.solarmango.com/solar-mango-dictionary/diffuse-radiation
4. https://www.azosensors.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=616
5. https://www.campbellsci.com/blog/pyranometers-need-to-know
6. https://www.explainthatstuff.com
7. https://www.apogeeinstruments.com/silicon-cell-pyranometer-support/#videos