Analysis of experimental data on diffuse solar radiation in Athens, Greece, for building applications

Proper design and performance prediction of solar energy systems requires accurate information on the availability of solar radiation. The diffuse-to-total radiation correlation, originally developed by Liu and Jordan, has been extensively used as the technique and provided excellent results, although it was latitude dependent and not universally applicable. Thus, diffuse fraction correlations of this type have been developed by few other authors and for different location. This paper presents an analysis of hourly diffuse radiation on a horizontal surface. Hourly pyranometer data from Athens, Greece, are used to establish relationships between the diffuse fraction and the clearness index k T for hourly and daily values. The results of the proposed equations are then compared with earlier equations. For the urban conditions of Athens the developed correlation fit to the empirical data.