Development of solar isodose lines: Mercatorian and spatial guides for mapping solar installation areas

Mercatorian and spatial studies of solar power potential (SPP) provide technical guides for mapping actual solar installation areas for the efficient performance of photovoltaic plants. Acquisition and processing of satellite and on-station data on clearness index, relative sunshine hours, latitude, longitude and SPP preceded their modeling and simulations. The mercatorian SPP model is a geometric function of latitude and longitude, whereas the spatial SPP model is a function of x and y coordinates developed from the Haversine formula. Multiple isodose lines and a single maximum isodose line characterized the distributed and concentrated SPP contours, respectively. The present geometric SPP model validated well with the measured SPP with insignificant error results for the study areas. The Concentrated SPPs: 757.5, 635.2, 557.5 and 405.9 W/m(2) with their corresponding percentage concentrated areas (actual): 28.85(29084.6), 41.48(15368.6), 4.37(1179.6) and 0.75(635.7)%(m(2)) for Northern Region (NR), Eastern Region (ER), Central Region (CR) and Western Region (WR), respectively. These results support the efficient performance of solar facilities within the confine of the SPP concentrated areas. The effective mercatorian coordinates were useful in identifying districts within the SPP concentrated areas. Furthermore, the high magnitude of the SPP in ER and NR supports that they are favored for the installation of solar facilities.