Exploratory evaluation of solar radiation and ambient temperature in twenty locations distributed in United Kingdom

Solar radiation and ambient temperature is a foundation resource programs of large-scale deployment of solar energy technologies. This paper summarizes the analysis of a weather station network in United Kingdom. Whistle 3 years (January 2015 – December 2017) of data from twenty weather stations distributed across the country. The data comprises of Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI), Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI), Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI), ambient temperature, wind speed, and the humidity. Network design, implementation, and data quality assurance are described, in order to document the network extent and quality. From all observed datasets, it was found that Plymouth (located in southwest England) has the dominant GHI, and ambient temperature among all other 19 locations. The least GHI is observed for Aberdeen (located in northeast Scotland) estimated at 77.3 kWh/m2. However, the least average ambient temperature is equal to 9.1 °C, this data was detected from the weather station located in the capital of Scotland (Edinburgh). Although continued measurements are needed to understand the interannual resource variability, the current study provides significant guidance for preliminary technology selection, power plant modeling, and resource forecasting.