Developing a new model for predicting global solar radiation on a horizontal surface located in Southwest Region of Algeria

ABSTRACT Global solar radiation data is essential in the design of solar energy conversion devices. The most widely used model in the estimation of the global solar radiation coming to the earth’s surface is the Angtröm-Prescott model. In this model, relative sunshine duration plays an important role. In the current study, it was attempted to review different models and to determine the best performing model developed for the city of Bechar and two locations of Algerian Big South desert for solar energy projects and compare them with the different established models available in the literature up until now, based on measured sunshine hours data. The new models give high accuracies on the application, where (R2) ranges between 0.70 and 0.99. In addition, MBE and RMSE values are very low in the studied stations. The results presented in this paper are quite useful for quick estimation of global solar radiation data required for performance evaluation of solar collector used for different applications of solar energy.