Global Solar Radiation Modelling using an Artificial Neural Network for Kazaure, Jigawa State, Nigeria

This research presents an algorithm based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), for estimating monthly mean daily and hourly values of solar global radiation. To effectively investigate solar energy consumption and estimate solar renewable energy resources, the Hourly Global Solar Radiation measurements are necessary. In order to predict monthly average daily global sun irradiance on a horizontal area of Kazaure- Nigeria, this study creates a model utilizing ANN to solve the problem of solar energy distribution. Five empirical correlations are developed using the data from 42 months to aid in the prediction of the solar energy distribution pattern. The software is constructed around the Multilayer Perceptron under categorized tabs, with Multilayer perception in neural network Toolbox in MATLAB 9.7 version as a feed forward ANN that maps sets of input data into a set of suitable output. It differs from conventional linear perception by employing three or more layers of neurons (nodes) with nonlinear activation functions. It is also more effective than perceptrons in identifying input that is not linearly separable by a linear hyper-plane. Results obtained utilizing the suggested structure reveals good agreement between the calculated and measured levels of global solar irradiation. The ANN model is shown to be superior when compared to empirical models, due to negligible noise margin.