Efficient solar radiation estimation using cohesive artificial neural network technique with optimal synaptic weights

Estimation of solar potential is vital for renewable energy applications. In several studies, artificial neural networks have been employed to model solar radiation using various meteorological parameters. The collection and availability of the most appropriate input parameters is important for getting an accurate artificial neural network model. The present study aims to estimate the global solar radiation using different meteorological parameters and identify the significant parameters based on the analysis of synaptic weights in an artificial neural network model using the connection weight approach. Initially, artificial neural network and empirical models is applied to estimate the solar radiation in Chamba region. The artificial neural network architecture 5-48-15-1 resulted in minimum mean absolute percentage error of 12.15%. The mean absolute percentage error values for linear models are found to be 18.95%, 15.39%, and 21.62%, respectively. Thereafter, connection weight approach is applied to find significant parameters. The efficacy of the approach has been shown through a case study related to estimation of solar radiations in the Hamirpur region situated in the state of Himachal Pradesh (India). Five input parameters, namely temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), clearness index (K-T), precipitation (P-T), and pressure (P), have been considered to estimate solar radiations using a feed-forward neural network. The proposed approach infers that temperature is the most significant parameter followed by humidity and pressure. The clearness index and precipitation has been found to have the least effect on the estimation of solar radiations. Results also indicate that artificial neural network based technique is more accurate compared to empirical model.