In a new weekly update pv magazineThe DNV company Solcast presents the solar radiation power data it collected from Southeast Asia in May.
The high pressure system that caused record high temperatures in a large part of Asia at the end of April has continued largely until May with less than average rain and a slow start to the monsoon.
In April, many temperature records were broken in Southeast Asia as a result of a heat wave that World Weather Attribution defined as “a once-in-200-year event that would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without human-induced climate change. The exceptional high over Siberia continued in May as the region experienced heat: Vietnam’s all-time temperature record broke in early May and rose to near 45 degrees.
Dry weather in Southeast Asia was moderated by cloudier weather in northern China and South Korea, where solar radiation was generally 80-90% of the long-term expectation for May.
Most of Japan saw generally typical total solar radiation in May. However, radiation intensity was about 10% above average on the northern island of Hokkaido, which was related to drier conditions in Siberia.
Total solar irradiance was highest in the Tibetan Plateau, where a thinner atmosphere means more sunlight reaches the surface.
Solcast produces these numbers through the radiative forcing forecast and weather API by tracking clouds and aerosols to within 1-2 km globally using satellite data and proprietary AI/ML algorithms. This information is used to control the irradiance models, which makes it possible Solcast calculates irradiance with high resolution, typical error less than 2%, and also cloud tracking predictions. This data is used by more than 300 companies that manage more than 150 GW of solar energy worldwide.
