In situ measurement of shortwave radiation by ship for harvesting sea solar energy

Abstract

This paper presents in situ measurement results for global horizontal radiation to obtain precise information about incoming shortwave radiation along a ship’s route between Tongyeong (South Korea) and Hakata (Japan). The observations were performed on a volunteer ship during the spring, summer, and fall seasons of South Korea in 2016. The observed data were compared with NASA-SSE data from 2004 and classified as maximum, minimum, and average values based on whether the weather was fine, cloudy, or rainy, respectively. A computational analysis of the collected data was also performed. The average global horizontal radiation observed in 2016 in this experiment was approximately 1kWh/m2/day less than that found in 2004. The statistical analysis showed that there were both overestimations and underestimations in our measurements. The maximum root mean square error was 3.2kWh/m2.The weather condition and month of the year have significant effects on a mobile coastal solar radiation power plant. Finally, we assumed that a 1630 mm × 982 mm mono-crystalline silicon solar module was installed on the roof of the ship, and the energy in kilowatt hours per day was calculated. In this case, the highest possible value when harvesting solar energy was 76.39kWh/day and the lowest was 39.47kWh/day. Approximately 73.59kWh/day could be obtained on average using this solar module from April to August. However, this value is reduced by approximately half during the fall season.