SOLAR ENERGY FLUX INCIDENT ON A HORIZONTAL PLANE OF DIFFERENT EGYPTIAN LOCATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL APPLICATIONS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Prof. of Agr. Eng., Suez-Canal Univ., Egypt.

2 2 Assoc. Prof. of Agr. Eng., Suez-Canal Univ., Egypt.

3 Agr. Eng., Egypt.

Abstract

Solar energy is the main parameter, which affects both photovoltaic pumps and crops evapo-transpiration. A micro computer program derived for mapping the incident solar energy over Egypt (22o to 32o and 24o to 38o latitude and longitude angles, respectively). The derived model transforms the solar altitude angle to solar radiation intensity, which integrated between sunrise and sunset to compute the incident solar energy. The model was validated with the measured solar energy with average deviation percent of -3.5 %. The daily average solar energy flux incident on a horizontal plane was 5.72 kWh/m2/day.

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