Estimation of global solar radiation on horizontal surface using meteorological data

In the present study, the methods of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Regression Analysis were used in estimating monthly average daily global solar radiation arriving on horizontal surface in Rize with the help of meteorological and geographic data like monthly average daily extraterrestrial radiation, monthly average daily hours of bright sunshine, day length, relative humidity, wind speed, temperature and declination angle. Mean bias error (MBE), root mean square error (RMSE) and t-statistic methods were used to evaluate performance of the estimation. It was seen at the end of the study that the equation obtained through multi-regression analysis method yielded better performance than that of obtained through ANN method.