Development of an irradiance sensor network to model photovoltaic plant-average irradiance time series

With exponential growth in in the U.S. utility-scale photovoltaic market, high resolution solar irradiance data and appropriate spatial-temporal models are required to determine the true impact of solar power variability on the grid. This paper describes a new and economical Data Acquisition System (DAS) to collect high resolution solar power data required for high penetration PV integration studies and suggests an empirical model to simulate the plant-average irradiance time series given a single irradiance point sensor.