Here you can find web applications to browse and query GIS databases of solar radiation and other climatic parameters. The data make it possible to estimate PV electricity generation at any location in two regions:

• Europe

• Africa, Mediterranean Basin and South-West Asia

A location can be chosen either by browsing/zooming and clicking on a map, choosing a country and city from a list, or by directly setting latitude/longitude values. Read more information about the database and the applications.

• solar irradiation data utility [Europe]  [Africa]
  This application provides monthly and yearly averages of global irradiation at horizontal and inclined surfaces, as well as other climatic and PV-related data (Linke turbidity, ratio diffuse/global irradiation and optimum inclination angle of the surface). For a chosen location, these parameters are displayed in a separate window as a table and graphs. An estimation of the deficit in yearly horizontal irradiation due to terrain shadowing is also provided.

• solar irradiance data utility [Europe]  [Africa]
  For a selected module inclination and orientation a user can get a daily profiles of clear-sky and real-sky irradiances for a chosen month (displayed in a separate window). The daily variance is estimated by a standalone calculator, running on a server. The calculator takes into account also the shadowing by local terrain features

• Solar electricity utility [Europe]  [Africa]
  This application calculates the monthly and yearly potential electricity generation E [kWh] of a PV configuration with defined modules inclination and orientation using a formula:

       E = 365 P_k r_p H_h,I

  where P_k (kW) is the peak power installed, r_p is the system performance ratio (typical value for roof mounted system with modules from mono- or polycrystalline silicon is 0.75) and H_h,i is the monthly or yearly average of daily global irradiation on the horizontal or inclined surface. The calculator can suggest the optimum inclination/orientation of the PV modules to harvest maximum electricity within a year

• PV potential in built-up areas by regions utility [Europe] (old interface)
  The statistical characteristics of global irradiation and PV potential in regions were calculated for the horizontal, vertical and optimally inclined surfaces. We have considered the most widespread grid-connected PV technology, installed within the existing building infrastructure. To compute the annual total electricity output from a PV system, E [kWh], the following simple equation was used: 

       E = 365 P_k r_p H_h,I

  where Pk (in kW) is the peak power installed (1 kW in our case), rp is the system efficiency (analogous to the performance ratio, typical value for a roof mounted system with modules from mono- or polycrystalline silicon is 0.75) and G is the annual mean of daily global irradiation on a horizontal or inclined surface of the PV module. The PV potential data layer was overlaid with the built-up areas, mapped in the CORINE Land Cover database as class 11 (urban fabric) to extract information only for urbanized territory. The CORINE Land Cover database is publicly available at resolution 100 x 100 metres for selected European countries, for the others the city boundaries were used instead. Finally, a data layer of administrative regions (NUTS, level 1-3) was overlaid to calculate the statistical values (average, minimum, maximum, standard deviation) of the PV electricity generation potential in individual countries and their regions.

• animations
  were generated using the previously mentioned GIS database, r.sun and other GRASS GIS modules.