Testimonies
190+ testimonies Since 2002! |
(in reverse chronological order)
#196 | Radiation | HelioClim-3 data | Radiation data from HelioClim-3 for a study in Georgia | Aug. 2021 |
User: Liza, student from Georgie
"My name is Liza, I am a student. I am finishing my bachelor's degree and I need all this to defend my diploma on this topic. I chose a place in Tbilisi, Georgia, in the territory of Gamarjveba. I am very satisfied with the SoDa service, when I ask a question you have immediate answers."
#195 | Radiation | JADE dataset | Development of estimate energy model for vehicule | Aug. 2021 |
User: Odunayo Lawal, Environmentalist, Nigeri
"My name is Odunayo, from Nigeria. I'm an Environmentalist, working with PAMM Environmental Service Limited. I collect, analyse, and model data for organization usage and research purposes. I'm currently working on a research that focuses on application of renewable energy to reduce and mitigate the influence of emissions. The proposed data will be used for analysis in the research work. I read about SODA on researchgate and there are testimonies that they offer reliable data for analysis."
#194 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Development of estimate energy model for vehicule | Jun. 2021 |
User: Neel Patel, PhD candidate, Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) and TU Eindhoven (The Netherlands)
"I am developing a model to estimate energy yield of vehicle integrated PV (VIPV) systems. The SoDa data will be used in the modelling activity for VIPV. The SoDa service is a very enabling service helping me achieve my tasks."
#193 | Atmosphere | Linke Turbidity factor | Development of new clear sky model | May 2021 |
"The project I am developing is about the forecasting of the global horizontal, diffuse horizontal and direct normal irradiance components in the short time using a cathadioptric vision system. Our proposed forecasting approach aims to use the DNI value under clear sky conditions as a reference assuming that no clouds block the sun. There are more than 70 clear sky models in the literature, however many of them use input variables that are difficult to obtain. In addition, several models are calibrated for specific locations and climates. This is why we developed a new clear sky model but we need to know its performance and this is why we want to compare it against other models. This is why we contacted SoDa Service to request monthly linke turbidity coefficient data from various locations around the world to implement various clear sky models that use this variable. Finally, I thank SoDa Service for their kind and prompt attention in providing the requested data."
#192 | Radiation | AI forecast | Prévoir la production du lendemain des centrales PV | May 2021 |
"Selfee est un acheteur d'électricité renouvelable dont la mission est de fournir les collectivités locales situées aux alentours des sites de production. Nous négocions des contrats d'approvisionnement avec des producteurs, nous répondons à des appels d'offres publics de fourniture d'électricité, et nous optimisons l'ensemble de ces contrats de manière à équilibrer notre portefeuille. Au quotidien, Selfee doit prévoir la production de ses centrales pour chaque demi-heure le lendemain. Les centrales photovoltaïques étaient jusqu'à présent minoritaires dans notre portefeuille, mais cela va évoluer rapidement en 2021 et nous avons besoin d'améliorer la fiabilité de nos prévisions, ce que nous espérons obtenir avec le service AI Forecast de SoDa. Nous avons une appréciation particulièrement positive sur la prise de contact, les informations transmises et l'approche client que vous mettez en œuvre."
#191 | Atmosphere | Linke Turbidity factor | Computation of clear sky DNI days | May 2021 |
"I work for RPOW Consulting, and I am currently working in DEWA Phase IV (700MW CSP + 250MW PV Hybrid Project) as Commissioning Manager and CSP Performance Specialist. I have been working for CSP Industry for the last 16 years in several companies related to CSP Industry (EPC Contractor side) such as Abengoa and Sener.
I need such Linke turbidity factors to calculate the clear sky DNI in DEWA location (close to Dubai), as a reference to compare with real DNI and provide some classification of days.
These clear sky days, calculated hourly during a whole year, will be compared with our TMY to see "how good the TMY was", and to calculate MAXIMUM "reasonably" expected could be the yearly production of the CSP Plant.
I'm happy to see SoDa is still working, I cannot find anywhere else how to get them. I used SoDa in my early ages almost everyday, I see that your service has been improved. Keep up the good work!"
#190 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Develop different types of models to predict energy production | May 2021 |
"I am working on my Master's thesis, which is about data-driven short-term forecasting of solar irradiance at a specific location. Professor Mathieu Kessler is the supervisor of this work. And I will need this dataset in order to develop different types of models to predict energy production. I have not done much work with SoDa Service yet, but I am sure I will receive the best care."
#189 | Atmosphere | Linke Turbidity factor | Calibration of r.sun model | Apr. 2021 |
"My name is Zhou Li, and I am a second year graduate student at Fuzhou University majoring in GIS. My project mainly uses the sunshine conditions to calibrate the r.sun model. The linke turbidity factors of the study area need to be used. I am so glad SoDa can provide these useful and high quality data for my research."
#188 | Radiation | HCday | Consolidation et vérification des données mesurées sur site | Mar. 2021 |
"AKUO est un producteur français indépendant d'électricité à partir des sources renouvelables et développe, finance, construit et exploite de nombreux projets en France et à l'international depuis 2007. J'ai fait appel aux données fournies par le service SoDa dans la cadre de consolidation et vérification de données mesurées sur site qui permettrait d'estimer la production d'une centrale photovoltaïque. Les données et le recours au service SoDa ont permis de justifier de façon indépendante ce calcul. Je suis très satisfaite du service réalisée, de la réactivité et professionnalisme rencontrés."
#187 | Radiation | AGATE and JADE datasets | Analyze the availability and characteristics of renewable resources in the sea with the idea of take into account different sources | March 2021 |
"My name is Martin Gastón, I am associate professor in the Public university of Navarre in the Statistic, Informatic and Mathematics department and member of the Smart Cities Institute of our University. Our research group has a strong activity in operation reserach developments in different frameworks, beinng renewable energy one of the key topics where we focused our research. Currently, we have started a research project where we would like analyze the availability and characteristics of renewable resources in the sea with the idea of take into account different sources (wind, solar, and other) to develop future hybrid power planst and to analize optimization probles related to management, operation (storage) and maintenance activities. In this framework we have identifies the CAMS data as a very important source of information. Related to th SoDa service, both SoDa page and CAMS data offers very helful information and in a very usabble way, the fact that R package is available to easy the data download and reading is also an important feature that must be remarked under our point of view."
#186 | Radiation | HCdayDNI | Modelling biomass-solar parabolic trough collector system for industrial tea drying | February 2021 |
"My name is Philip Akello, I work at Christian Aid as the Africa Policy Lead on Climate Change. I am also a PhD student at the Institute of Energy & Environmental Technology (IEET) at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya. My Thesis is on modelling biomass-solar parabolic trough collector system for industrial tea drying, with the goal of ascertaining the availability of adequate solar radiation (DNI) for tea drying in the tea growing highlands of Kenya. The final analysis will present different hybrid configurations that tea companies can adopt to enhance their net zero ambitions while at the same time reducing on their production costs. Of course use of solar collectors will equally reduce on land space that would otherwise have been used to grow trees used for tea drying, as is the current practice. This research will provide the much-needed evidence for my Pan African Advocacy work on climate change mitigation at Christian Aid. I am therefore excited to get solar irradiance (DNI) data from SoDa Service to pioneer this type of research, since currently, there's no application of solar collector technology for industrial heating in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. The data will strictly be used for research purposes and will not be sold nor otherwise made available for any other third-party use."
#185 | Radiation | HChourIncl | Rendre les foyers domestiques autonomes en énergie | February 2021 |
"Nous sommes trois étudiants en école d'ingénieur. Selon nous, assurer la consommation énergétique mondiale est l'un des plus grands enjeux actuels. Nous profitons donc de notre temps libre pour travailler sur un projet ayant pour but de trouver une solution pour rendre les foyers domestiques autonomes en énergie. L'une des principales sources d'énergie serait solaire, d'où l'utilisation des données d'ensoleillement de SoDa. Pour l'instant nous sommes encore en phase d'étude. Nous remercions grandement le service SoDa qui nous a donné accès gratuitement à leurs données pour notre projet. Le service était rapide et les personnes très agréables. Le seul petit défaut que nous pouvons donner est le site internet. Ce dernier n'est pas très intuitif et il peut être compliqué d'accéder à certaines données."
#184 | Meteo | GFS time series | Modélisation thermique des bâtiments | January 2021 |
"Je fais partie de l'équipe R&D de la start-up A-GRID qui développe un logiciel de gestion de l'énergie pour les bâtiments tertiaires. Je m'occupe principalement de la modélisation thermique du bâtiment pour laquelle j'utilise en partie les données météorologiques fournies par SoDa. La température extérieure ainsi que les données solaires d'irradiance font parties des excitations thermiques extérieures d'un bâtiment. Les services proposés par SoDa nous sont ainsi essentiels et nous sommes très satisfaits des données comme du service client."
#183 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Supporting R&D efforts for continued internal efficiency, and solar consulting | October 2020 |
"My name is Sam Brockmeyer and I work for Heliolytics Inc. , a global provider in PV inspection and fault analysis. We provide aerial thermal PV inspections to a multitude of companies worldwide, and my duties here involve coordinating all aerial operations, as well as supporting R&D efforts for continued internal efficiency, and solar consulting. It is this last point that leads me to request your data. I wish to obtain solar radiation data over continental Europe, for a historical period of at least 10 years, with the goal of presenting an analysis of optimal times to perform aerial thermal PV scans throughout a typical year. No data or data product created internally in here will be sold or otherwise compensated for by a third party, rather we aim to use the analysis as a tool to inform decision making in scheduling, and incentivizing an action-oriented, preventative approach to PV system management. Finally, I am reaching out to you at the SoDa Service because I am impressed with the interface and access to various HelioClim-3/etc data products, and find it one of the best avenues to access solar data over Europe."
#182 | Radiation | HCdayIncl&meteo | Dimensionnement d'une installation individuelle | October 2020 |
"Dans le cadre de la transition écologique, j'ai entrepris avec mon père une étude de coût pour remplacer le chauffage au fuel de notre maison par un chauffage solaire thermique complètement autonome. Afin de dimensionner au mieux notre système pour limiter les coûts, les données de radiations solaires fournies par soda-pro nous ont permis de réaliser une simulation approximative de l'énergie solaire disponible tout au long de l'année et ainsi de dimensionner notre surface de panneaux solaires."
#181 | Radiation | HCmonthDNI | Optimiser le rendement énergétique et le coût | September 2020 |
"Syneria est un bureau d'études et de conseil international spécialisé dans les énergies renouvelables (ENRs). Nous intervenons sur l'ensemble du cycle de vie des projets, de la phase de développement à la phase d'exploitation jusqu'au démantèlement des installations. Nous utilisons régulièrement les données fournies par le service SoDa dans le cadre de nos différentes analyses. Nous sommes satisfaits de la qualité du service tant au niveau des produits que de la réactivité des équipes."
#180 | Radiation | HC15Incl | To simulate module temperature | September 2020 |
"I am a student at FH Joanneum, University for Applied Sciences, Institute of "Energy-, Mobility- and Environmental Management" in Kapfenberg, Austria. For my thesis I am working on an algorithm to automatically detect a specific kind of fault in photovoltaic systems. I am using HelioClim-3 radiation data to simulate module temperatures. For my project this data is really essential, because a lot of photovoltaic plants have no temperature measurements or the sensors are not properly positioned. Our calculations show, that the module temperatures simulated from this data are a lot more accurate than one would expect at first. Also the team of SoDa helped me a lot with their great service."
#179 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Analyse des modulations spatio-temporelles du rayonnement solaire | September 2020 |
"Je suis post-doctorant à Météo-France et je cherche à améliorer les corrections apportées aux prévisions météorologiques. Dans le cadre du projet européen EoCoE 2, je m'intéresse notamment aux prévisions de rayonnement solaire. Les données CAMS me permettent d'évaluer la qualité des prévisions des modèles météorologiques. Je suis entièrement satisfait par le service SoDa et de l'équipe de transvalor qui s'est montrée très réactive et toujours à l'écoute pour répondre à mes questions."
#178 | Radiation | JADE dataset | Analyse des modulations spatio-temporelles du rayonnement solaire | April 2020 |
"Mon travail de fin d'étude à l'institut des Géosciences de l'environnement (IGE Grenoble-France), consiste à analyser les modulations spatio-temporelles du rayonnement solaire incident sur la façade atlantique de l'Afrique centrale. J'utilise les Données SODA afin de réaliser des cartes mensuelles et annuelles du Rayonnement solaire ainsi que pour comparer différentes bases de données satellitaires sur le Rayonnement solaire. L'utilisation des données SODA (JADE ) est suite à la recommandation de mon encadrante de stage car ils sont disponibles gratuitement et fiables."
#177 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Provide technical consulting services | April 2020 |
"I am a project engineer and data analyst working in the field of photovoltaic energy. My company, renerco plan consult, is a small consulting firm providing technical consulting services to customers dealing with utility-scale solar and also wind power worldwide. We support our customers in all technical questions regarding the planning, operation and optimization of solar and wind power plants. Our services range from technical due diligences, the creation of yield reports, to data analysis in order to assess the performance of the power plants. I am responsible mostly for the creation of yield reports for photovoltaic power plants and data analysis. I use Python to develop tools and analyze datasets in order to find potential faults in photovoltaic systems. The AGATE dataset will be used as source for the estimation of irradiation levels on the horizontal for European locations. These values will then be used for the creation of yield reports. The source of the data will be provided in our reports accordingly. We will also use this data to identify deviations of historical yield values from European PV plants. I have been using the SoDa webservice to retrieve data for German locations and am very satisfied with the data accuracy."
#176 | Radiation | JADE dataset | To get better yields from farms | April 2020 |
"I am a statistician working for an NGO called One Acre Fund that works with farmers mostly in Eastern Africa, by providing them with farm inputs and training so they get better yields from their farms. I am trying to gather climate data among other types of data to help in predicting yields in some of the areas where our farmers are based so we can make recommendations to farmers based on our predictions."
#175 | Radiation | HC3realtime and forecast with meteo | Private use in smart home application | March 2020 |
"After retirement I am pursuing my private project - home automation with openHAB (https://www.openhab.org). For this purpose, "HelioClim-3 Real Time and Forecast + METEO DATA" should be read in automatically preferred in JSON format. "Global inclined radiation" and "Temperature" will be parameters for controlling the combined gas / solar heating, "Rainfall" will control the garden irrigation. I am very grateful to the SoDa team that it also helps private enthusiasts to access high-quality data."
#174 | Radiation | HC15Incl&meteo | To assess the long-term average solar resource for our independent PV yield analyses | March 2020 |
"Hello, this is André from SolPEG. We are a long-term customer of SoDa services and typically consult HelioClim3 monthly data as one of several data sources to assess the long-term average solar resource for our independent PV yield analyses. This time we worked with a sub-hourly HC3v5 time series for a site in Ireland where we had 1 year of precise ground measurements available. It has been possible to calibrate the satellite data to the ground measurements with good results on monthly level. In total we worked with two time series from different providers. It turned out that the HC3v5 data set was especially useful for the months November to January but also showed good correlation for the rest of the year. The support by the SoDa team had been friendly, prompt and professional as always."
#173 | Radiation | CAMS Radiation Service | To analyse building energy performance using computer simulations | February 2020 |
"I am a former Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for 27 years, during which time my specialty was to analyse building energy performance using computer simulations. When I left the Lab in 2007, I started a small consultant company White Box Technologies to provide the same service to government agencies, international organizations, and commercial companies. Since my clients are all over the world, I have become involved in developing weather files for use in building energy calculations. Solar radiation is an important component of a weather file for which I had been deriving with empirical cloud-based models. The satellite-derived solar irradiation provided by SoDa Service appears to be more accurate and continuously available for a third of the world's surface. I am very pleased with the technical quality of the solar data and the professionalism of the staff at SoDa Service."
#172 | Radiation | Radiation HC15Incl&meteo | Review of new models in the market for the wind and solar resource assessments | December 2019 |
"I work for the Energy Assessment department at EDPR, which is one of the largest global wind operators. EDPR build and operates wind and PV power plants; my daily work includes the review of new models in the market that can add value to the wind and solar resource assessments. The data will be used for PV solar assessment and due diligences. In general, we have a nice experience."
#171 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Investigating the potential of urban solar farms using EO and GIS | October 2019 |
"This is Mostafa Azizkhani and I am a Research Assistant in Insight Centre of Data Analytics at Dublin City University and a member of the DCU Geospatial Research Group. The Insight Centre for Data Analytics is one of Europe's largest data analytics research organisations, with 400+ researchers, more than 80 industry partners. In Insight, we are working on investigating the potential of urban solar farms using EO and GIS. AGATE dataset will be used only as one of our primary data (GHI, DHI, DNI) for our model. We appreciate SoDa because they make AGATE data freely available for researcher and this can help researchers to work better."
#170 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Développement d'un simulateur gratuit en ligne des performances des centrales photovoltaïques | September 2019 |
"Quantom est une start-up francçaise spécialisée dans l'augmentation des performances des centrales solaires photovoltaïques. Nous nous servons des données CAMS pour simuler le comportement des centrales photovoltaïques afin d'analyser et caractériser leur comportement réel. Le volume AGATE nous servira pour effectuer les études climatologiques afin de mieux comprendre le ressource solaire au niveau national. Nous étions toujours très satisfaits du service proposé par SoDa, à la fois par la qualité de service et par l'ouverture d'esprit du personnel. Nous avons également trouvé la formation annuelle "Solar Training" excellente et la recommandons à tout acteur du domaine de l'énergie solaire. Nous sommes impatients de découvrir les futures innovations mises à disposition par votre équipe."
#169 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Développement des modèles de prévision de production intermittente et de ceux liés à l'analyse de risque pour l'agrégation d'électricité renouvelable | August 2019 |
"Data Scientist chez BCM Energy, je suis chargé du développement des modèles de prévision de production intermittente (PV, éolien, hydraulique) et de ceux liés à l'analyse de risque pour l'agrégation d'électricité renouvelable. Ces deux domaines nécessitent d'être en mesure de modéliser la production d'un actif, notamment photovoltaïque, en convertissant des données météorologiques en puissance injectée sur le réseau.
BCM Energy est une PME française maîtrisant l'intégralité de la chaîne de valeur de l'électricité verte, de l'agrégation de production renouvelable à la fourniture d'une énergie 100 % verte via la marque Planète OUI. Le fournisseur propose à ses clients une solution complète d'autoconsommation photovoltaïque, basée sur un simulateur qui permet de dimensionner de façon optimale son installation. Ce simulateur nécessite la modélisation de profils de production photovoltaïques, eux-mêmes générés via les données d'irradiance AGATE mises à disposition par le webservice. Les données du CAMS Radiation Service sont elles aussi utilisées pour la modélisation de profils de production photovoltaïque historiques – employés dans des études de risques. Finalement, les données d'irradiance par temps clair du modèle CAMS McClear sont employées pour affiner certaines étapes de la modélisation de production PV.
BCM Energy est très satisfaite de l'utilisation des données SoDa. Plusieurs études et validation menées en interne ont démontré leur qualité en termes de précision et d'homogénéité. Les webservice sont de même accessibles en continu, ce qui permet de les intégrer avec fiabilité dans différents processus de l'entreprise. Pour tout type de données d'irradiance, il est ainsi fortement conseillé de se tourner vers SoDa!"
#168 | Radiation | AGATE and JADE datasets | Research of PV-battery off-grid systems | July. 2019 |
"I am a researcher at the Technical university of Berlin and I am currently focusing on the research of PV-battery off-grid systems. I conduct multi-objective optimization analysis for the optimal sizing of all technical components. I want to integrate a new sizing procedure based on gridded datasets. I am very satisfied with the SoDa service and data quality, which I already use for a couple of years."
#167 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Research on PV solar land suitability analysis in the UK | June. 2019 |
"I am a MSc student at the University of Bath (UK) and I am currently carrying out a research project about PV solar land suitability analysis in the UK. In order to identify the most suitable areas for solar deployment, several factors have been identified taking into account social, technical, economic, and environmental aspects. In this context, an ArcGIS model is being developed with the main purpose of managing huge amounts of data. This data includes the direct solar radiance which is a crucial technical factor within solar panels. For this reason, the data set AGATE provides me with sufficient information to run the model. Overall, I am very satisfied with the SoDa service thanks to its quick support service and the quality of the data provided."
#166 | Spectral | Spectral portlet | Effect of visible light (PAR) and UV radiation on litter decomposition in temporate forests | June. 2019 |
User: Marta Pieristè, joint PhD student at University of Helsinki (Finland) and University of Rouen-Normandie (France)
"I am a PhD stunts at the 3rd year, part of the research group "CanSEE" (Uni Helsinki) and "ECODIV" (Uni Rouen). I study the effect of sunlight on litter decomposition in the forest understorey. The Helioclim-3 provides UV-A and UV-B radiation and PAR irradiance and represents the input for the characterization of the light environment in the understorey, through the processing of hemispherical pictures. I find this database very interesting and useful, an improvement could be made by providing irradiance data for separate wavebands (e.g. blue, green, red, far-red)."
#165 | Radiation | HChourIncl | Evaluer les impacts environnementaux de la demande énergétique de bâtiments avec une précision horaire | Apr. 2019 |
"Mon travail de fin d'étude, réalisé au Laboratoire d'Energétique Solaire et de Physique du Bâtiment (LESBAT) de la Haute Ecole Spécialisé de Suisse Occidental (HES-SO), consiste à évaluer les impacts environnementaux selon une approche Analyse de Cycle de Vie multicritère (émission de gaz à effet de serre, énergie primaire,…) de la demande énergétique de bâtiments avec une précision horaire. J'utilise les données SoDa afin de calculer les apports thermiques solaires dans ces bâtiments, ainsi que pour la simulation d'installations solaires en toiture. Je recommande le service SoDa tant pour la qualité des données que pour la rapidité et la qualité du service de l'équipe. "
#164 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | I want to compare CAMS-RAD to SARAH-2 (and partial SARAH-E) in terms of their spatial distribution and variability | Apr. 2019 |
"I am an independent researcher who works on solar resource assessment and forecasting. I write academic articles, and serve as the subject editor of Solar Energy. At this moment, I want to compare CAMS-RAD to SARAH-2 (and partial SARAH-E) in terms of their spatial distribution and variability. I am very happy with SoDa. However, as compared to other services such as NSRDB, the data access option can be improved by setting the daily request rate higher. Nonetheless, the R package camsRad is very helpful."
#163 | Radiation | HChourfull | Alimenter les entrées météo du clone numérique du bâtiment | March. 2019 |
"Kocliko est une startup technologique créée en 2016. Nous vendons de la performance énergétique réelle. Notre plateforme associe un clone numérique du bâtiment, des mesures provenant de sondes et compteurs d'énergies connectés et un ensemble d'algorithmes d'intelligence artificielle. A la clé pour nos clients, économies d'énergies (optimisation en exploitation et optimisation des travaux), transparence sur le confort des usagers, individualisation et pédagogie sur les frais de chauffage, sécurisation des investissements liés à la rénovation, sécurisation de la facturation des charges énergétiques. Notre activité au quotidien: beaucoup de R&D, consolider et automatiser un certain nombre de process liés à notre technologie. Notamment, nous travaillons à rapprocher le clone numérique de la réalité. C'est pour cela que nous avons besoin de données météo, fiables et en quasi temps réel. Les données de rayonnement que nous allons chercher dans la base de données HelioClim servent à alimenter les entrées météo du clone numérique du bâtiment. Nous cherchons à obtenir du clone des consommations d'énergie très proches de la réalité, dans les conditions d'usage et de météo qu'a vraiment subit le bâtiment réel. Témoignages: nous avons pu valider la faisabilité d'accès et d'utilisation du service web HelioClim proposé par SoDa de manière très souple. Les requêtes HTTP sont simples à mettre en place et la documentation pour affiner ces requêtes est détaillée. Quant aux données accessibles, elles sont propres et de qualité."
#162 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Adequacy and risk assessment | March. 2019 |
" I work for a European utility operating some renewable capacities. I'm a data scientist within an internal consulting department working for internal stakeholders. The data will be used for adequacy and risk assessment. I'm satisfied with the SoDa service."
#161 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Concentrated on renewable energy technology | Feb. 2019 |
User: James Dineen, University of Loughborough, UK
" I am currently undertaking a masters project through Loughborough University in the UK and it is within this context that I am requesting the data. The company is a University which carries out research into varies topics. My work is concentrated on renewable energy technology particularly wind, solar and battery technologies. I am looking into the feasibility of co-locating a solar farm alongside and existing wind farm with the aim of maximising energy output without increasing grid capacity for the existing site located in Ireland and request SoDa data to accurately size the solar farm. The SoDa service is excellent and I am very happy with it."
#160 | Radiation | HC3v5_1minIncl and HC3v5_1minDNI | Renewable Energy Systems | Feb. 2019 |
User: Loïc Quéval, Assistant professor, CentraleSupele, France
" I work on renewable energy systems. I have been using SoDa services in the frame of several PhD and Master projects. It is the best radiation database I have found and the support service is extremely reactive."
#159 | Radiation | AGATE and JADE datasets | Improving the living conditions of refugees in camps under severe climates | Dec. 2018 |
User: Daniel Fosas, Architect and PhD candidate at the University of Bath, UK
" Part of my research deals with improving the living conditions of refugees in camps under severe climates, for which I develop shelter simulations and human thermal models. In this context, the CAMS dataset provides the solar radiation data required to build weather files for building simulation and the environmental parameters to assess human thermal performance. Throughout the project, SoDa has been providing key information to carry out our studies efficiently, the information is complete and transparent, and its personnel deliver an outstanding and fast support to user queries."
#158 | Radiation | HC3v5_10min | Montrer au client la bonne marche industrielle de la centrale | Dec. 2018 |
User: Valerii Lazarev, conducteur de travaux, Bouygues Energie et Services, France
" Le centre de Montpellier s'occupe du domaine photovoltaïque. L'activité principale est de développement, construction et maintenance des centrale solaire partout en France et à l'étranger. Les données dont j'ai besoin vont être utilisées pour montrer au client la bonne marche industrielle de la centrale construite en Juin 2018 (3 ombrières sur le Parking d'usine HEXCEL) et le calcur de PR."
#158 | Radiation | HC3v4 et HC3v5 day and hour | Prédiction du rayonnement solaire | Dec. 2018 |
User: Badr Benamrou, doctorant à la Faculté des Sciences et Techniques de Tanger, Maroc
" Je travaille sur les modèles de prédiction du rayonnement solaire en utilisant les techniques de machine learning et deep learning, les bases de données Soda vont m'aider dans ma recherche scientifique et à réaliser des articles scientifiques, en outre je suis très satisfait du service de l'equipe Transvalor."
#157 | Radiation | AGATE dataset | Agroforestry applications | Dec. 2018 |
User: Maurizio Pieri, researcher at the Institute of Biometeorology of the National Research Council (IBIMET-CNR), Italy
" I work at the LaMMA Consortium (http://www.lamma.rete.toscana.it/en), a public consortium between CNR and the Tuscany Region. IBIMET works to define strategies, develop technologies and explore practical solutions to solve various environmental problems mostly of an agronomic nature due both to the use of the soil by man and to the effects of climate change. The LaMMA participates in Italian and international research projects and offers meteorological and climatological monitoring services at regional and national level. Over the past few years, the LaMMA has developed a methodology for estimating the daily solar global radiation based on satellite data (MSG). These data are used as input in some bio-geochemical models (BIOME-BGC) for agroforestry applications. AGATE data could be used to compare and validate our estimates and, if the spatial resolution of the data allows it, use them directly as input in our models. We use SoDa service data for several years. In particular, the CAMS products are certainly among the most reliable and constitute an international reference for research and operational applications concerning solar radiation."
#156 | Radiation | AGATE and JADE datasets | Run a simulation of solar power generation based on radiation of the past | Nov. 2018 |
User: Christopher Wild, student at Denmark Technical University (DTU), Copenhagen, Denmark
" I am currently working on a project work for the course "Intelligent Systems" where we free to build up an Intelligent Systems of our choice. Our group's intelligent system should simulate the hourly power generation and demand on selectable locations. I need the data to run a simulation of solar power generation based on radiation of the past. I am very satisfied with your time-to-response and the clearly website and also the viewer on the page. But to optimize the location for power generating I need the full data set."
#155 | Radiation | HChourDNI | Model a CSP plant in South Africa and inform a water consumption patterns analysis | Oct. 2018 |
User: Frank Duvenhage, PhD candidate at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
" I am part of a researcg group at the faculty of Engineering called STERG (Solar Thermal Energy Research Group), and we have a track record of around eight years in the field. We multiple scientific publications and represent the largest research group in this field from Africa. We typically have at least more than 5 presentations at Solar Paces each year on various research topics for Solar Thermal Energy. I am doing my reserach on sustainable management of CSP fleet deployment and water resources. I am modelling water consumption for CSP plants in South Africa and therefore need solar data. The data will be used to model a CSP plant in South Africa and inform a water consumption patterns analysis. The data available from SoDa is easily accesable and seems to have been thoroughly validated. Thank you for a great service!"
#154 | Radiation | AGATE Dataset | Simulate and estimate what combination of photovoltaic panels, solar inverter and battery capacity | Sept. 2018 |
User: Oihan Goenaga, Industrial engineer currently working in e-mobility
" I wish to implement an off-grid self-sufficient solar system at my parents' home. For this I have developed a Matlab code that simulates the radiation and power outcome of the system with different panel layout, inverter and battery capacity. The problem is that I lack of the data to make it accurate. If it works I would like to develop more projects like this. My daily work is not related to photovoltaic systems, I work developing high voltage electric vehicles. Nowadays I am working on an electric minibus for the city of Barcelona. The data will be used to simulate and estimate what combination of photovoltaic panels, solar inverter and battery capacity would fit best to each use case. I would be really grateful if this little project worked with your help and hopefully become something greater in the future."
#153 | Radiation | AGATE Dataset | Model past water demand based on past solar irradiance | Sept. 2018 |
User: Adam Simpson, Data analyst, South East Water, England
" I am Adam Simpson, a data analyst at south east water, whom are responsible for providing drinking water to 2.2 million customers in the south east of England. My daily duties include processing data, such as flows and pressures, into information such as leak locations, allowing the business to make informed data driven decisions. I am investigating the connection between customer water use and the weather, with this particular data I will be attempting to model past water demand based on past solar irradiance. So far I am very satisfied, however I haven't had much of a chance to explore the data available yet."
#152 | Radiation | HChourIncl | Validation of transposition models for solar irradiation prediction | August 2018 |
User: Yasser Fathi Nassar, Professor, Sebha University, Libya
" I am Prof. Dr. Yasser Fathi Nassar, the head of the mechanical and industrial engineering department, Engineering and Technology Faculty, Sebha University- Libya. I need the HelioClim-3 database for a scientific research related to the validation of transposition models for solar irradiation prediction in many places in Arabic World. I would recommended this URL to my colleagues and students. And I am satisfied by the the organized and complied data that provided by the URL."
#151 | Radiation | JADE Dataset | Simulate the performance of cooking solution | August 2018 |
User: Oscar Blanco, Master Thesis, Renetech, Sweden
" The aim of my thesis is to help in the design, analysis, and modeling of a solar powered cooking solution that we have developed. Therefore, the data will be used for its implementation in the model, which will simulate the performance of the technology. I have not been able yet to use the software, but from the information I have read I believe it will be satisfactory, with the right data that I need."
#150 | Radiation | JADE Dataset | Pompage de l'eau avec l'énergie solaire | August 2018 |
User: Simon Meunier, Doctorant, Laboratoire GeePs, France
" Je suis doctorant en 2ème année au sein du laboratoire Group of electrical engineering - Paris. Le laboratoire GeePs travaille notamment sur l'intégration des énergies renouvelables. Je travaille sur le pompage d'eau avec l'énergie solaire. Je vais utiliser les données CAMS pour évaluer les performances des pompes solaires sur l'ensemble du continent Africain. Je recommande très fortement CAMS, les données sont exceptionnelles et l'équipe support est toujours disponible."
#149 | Radiation | HCdayIncl | Alimenter les données de forçage météorologique d'un modèle 1-D de représentation de la température de l'eau des lacs | August 2018 |
User: Florian Piel, étudiant ENTPE, France
"Actuellement en 3ème année d'école d'ingénieurs à l'Ecole Nationale des Travaux Publics de l'Etat (ENTPE) et réalisant un travail de fin d'études / stage de Master sur l'exploitation thermique des lacs, j'ai utilisé les données SoDa afin d'alimenter les données de forçage météorologique d'un modèle 1-D de représentation de la température de l'eau des lacs. Aussi, en ce qui concerne la manipulation de données de rayonnement solaire, je recommande la base de données SoDa pour la facilité d'utilisation, la qualité des données et la gentillesse des membres de l'équipe-vente."
#148 | Radiation | HCmonthIncl | Evaluation of the potential of a solar plant | July 2018 |
User: Ricardo Meireles, founder of REWAT, Portugal
"With more than 10 years working in renewables today I am the founder of a new start-up on renewables focused on solar energy with a mission to simplify the introduction of green energy in small and medium companies. Solar energy is our main focus on renewables and irradiation data is the most important information of our business model. The correct evaluation of the potential of a solar plant is crucial to fit the plant capacity to the company needs of energy. Soda information is absolutely reliable and accepted as a good reference by external entities."
#147 | Radiation | JADE dataset | Analysis of the impacts of surface solar radiation on leaf turnover for tropical tree species | July 2018 |
User: Emma Bush, PhD student, University of Stirling, Scotland
"I am a final year PhD student based at the University of Stirling, UK. I research the impact of climate change on the phenology of central African forests using long-term field data from Lopé National Park, Gabon. The JADE dataset will contribute to an analysis of the impacts of surface solar radiation on leaf turnover for tropical tree species. The SoDa service has been very rapid and I am very satisfied with it."
#146 | Radiation | HC15Incl | Evaluate the real thermal performance of the outer shell of buildings | July 2018 |
User: Karel De Sloover, researcher, Belgian Building Research Institute, Belgium
"I am a researcher for the Energy division of the Belgian Building Research Institute, our goal is the development and implementation of new technologies to improve the building sector. Currently, I'm developing new in-situ testing methods to evaluate the real thermal performance of the outer shell of buildings. Data from the HelioClim-3 database was used to quantify the heat gains due to solar radiation on multiple test cases dating back to 2014. I would recommend the data provide by the SoDa team, as they offer a considerable set of variables that is neatly compiled and organized."
#145 | Radiation | JADE dataset | Study the enhancement of solar disinfection | July 2018 |
User: Stefanos Giannakis, post-doctoral researcher, Ecolde Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
"Currently, I am working on the solar-mediated disinfection of waters in Africa, funded by a H2020 program and the Swiss National Foundation (SEFRI). Our project can be found at: http://www.waterspoutt.eu. My role is to study the enhancement of solar disinfection by means of the Fenton process and solar light alone is the baseline. We have performed a series of simulated solar irradiation experiments in the lab, in order to inactivate bacteria, with a Suntest Solar Simulator from Atlas. We have tested the different irradiance values in the lab, and we want to extrapolate the results to the expected field values of solar irradiance. Finally, I have to underline that I was satisfied by the client service, as even during the vacation period your response was prompt and the requirements to get the data reasonable."
#144 | Radiation | HCday + Number of hours per day | Calibrate and validate a prediction model for rotundone | June 2018 |
User: Olivier Geffroy, assitant professor, Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan, France
"I am assistant professor in viticulture and enology at Ecole d'Ingénieurs de Purpan, an engineering school located in Toulouse (South West of France) that delivers a Master degree in agriculture and food sciences. My researches aim at studying factors impacting secondary metabolites (aromas, phenolic compounds) in grapes and wines. In 2013 and 2014, I conducted a field trial to determine the key environmental and viticultural variables affecting the concentration of rotundone (the black pepper aroma compound) in wines from 10 experimental sites with the Gaillac PDO. Data provided by HelioClim-3 database were used to calibrate and validate a prediction model for rotundone. I am very satisfied with the service provided by the SoDa team, their reactivity and will recommend them without hesitation."
#143 | Radiation | HCmonthDNI | African manatee conservation | June 2018 |
User: Aristide Takoukam, Ph.D Student, AMMCO, Cameroon
"I am a Ph.D. student studying the African manatee to improve his conservation status. In one of my chapter, I am interested in assessing the factors influencing the distribution of the submerged vegetation (potential manatee food) in Lake Ossa, Cameroon, Africa. The Direct Normal Irradiance data product from SoDa Helio-Clim3 database for my ROI is going to be useful at estimating maximum depth of plant colonization (MDC) in the lake and therefore predict the distribution of the submerged vegetation. I am very satisfied with SoDa data."
#142 | Radiation | HC30DNI et HC30Incl | Modélisation du rayonnement solaire par ciel clair et modélisation d'un four artisanal | June 2018 |
User: Martin Varnier, étudiant 2ème année CPGE PCSI au Lycée Gay Lussac de Limoges, France
" Le sujet que j'ai retenu pour mon TIPE est la modélisation sur Excel, du rayonnement solaire par ciel clair et la modélisation d'un four artisanal piloté en suivi azimutal par une carte Arduino selon les coordonnées sphériques du Soleil. Le 1er modèle est validé grâce aux données "Ciel clair" disponibles sur le site SoDa. Le 2ème doit l'être par des relevés expérimentaux de la montée en température du four. Mais la fin du mois de mai et début juin ont été particulièrement pluvieux, et l'irradiation reçue par le four ne correspond pas à celle d'un ciel clair. Il me faut donc travailler avec l'irradiation réelle, et c'est tout l'intérêt de la base de données de SoDa. Je suis très satisfait de la mise à disposition de cet outil au public."
#141 | Radiation | Jade dataset | Research on solar resource assessment in South Sudan using satellite data and Heliosat 4 method | May 2018 |
User: Aban Arop Yor Ayik, University of Juba, South Sudan
"I am an Assistant professor and Head of Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Architecture, University of Juba, South Sudan. Currently I am doing PhD studies in Renewable Energy at the Africa Centre of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (ACE-ESD), University of Rwanda. At the University of Juba, I lecture and do administrative work at the department of Mechanical Engineering. I lecture on Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Fluid Machinery and Gas Dynamics. As a PhD student at ACE-ESD, my research interests include renewables for power generation (solar, wind, small hydropower), micro-grids, hybrid power systems and energy economics. The data I am requesting will be used for research purposes. I am doing research on solar resource assessment in South Sudan using satellite data and Heliosat 4 method. Your data will help me estimate the solar irradiation over different cities in South Sudan. This will help identify potential sites for solar power generation plants in the country. Frankly and honestly, up to the moment I am happy and excited to use data from your website and I am hoping to achieve great results."
#140 | Radiation | HC15full&Meteo | Identify PV malfunctions | April. 2018 |
User: José Silva, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
"I've supervised a MSc work on thermography measurements to identify PV malfunctions and using the SoDa dataset I intend to now assess how can thermography and weather data contribute to better estimate the performance of a PV system."
#139 | Radiation | HC15full&Meteo | Spatial downscaling of weather variables | April. 2018 |
User: Rodrigo Silva, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
"I'm a PhD student and I got recently curious on spatial downscaling of weather variables. SoDa showed to be a very useful and convenient option, as they offer a considerable set of variables and they're all neatly compiled and organized."
#138 | Radiation | HC15full&Meteo | Energiy mix in Mozambique | April. 2018 |
User: Veloso Dava, Pedagogical University of Moçambique, Maputo, Mozambique
"My PhD is focused on making future projections for the energy mix in the Mozambique context and its implications on the grid infrastructure. In order to accurately estimate the potential for the different renewable energy sources, having a good meteorological dataset is very important. Then, SoDa showed to be a very interesting option."
#137 | Radiation | HC15full&Meteo | Energy storage | April. 2018 |
User: João Silva, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
"I'm currently doing my PhD in energy storage and I've been a solar energy enthusiast for quite some time. I have been interested in evaluating PV potential in an insular context and SoDa's offer was as a very good opportunity for me to do so."
#136 | Radiation | HC15full&Meteo | Floating PV | April. 2018 |
User: Sofia Costa, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
"My MSc thesis focus is on floating PV and I was looking for a weather dataset which would allow me to characterize the solar resource and wind/temperature/humidity conditions in a water dam in Portugal. Soda's dataset showed to be very complete and exactly what I needed!"
#135 | Radiation | Agate data volum | To help people in order to analyze the solar potential of the region they live in | April. 2018 |
User: Ionut Balazs, software engineer
"I am software engineer with 8+ years of experience working in web development. I currently occupy the position of senior software engineer and mainly work with the Microsoft .NET technology stack, JavaScript client-side libraries and Azure cloud services. The software I work on a daily basis deals with enterprise project and portfolio management. However, I have great passion for space and renewable energy and I try to get as involved as I can in my free time and possibly work in this domain in the future. I don't intend on using the data at the company where I'm currently employed. Like I said, my intention is to use the data inside a local competition to devise a "proof of concept" for an online platform that could help people analyze the solar potential of the region they live in (Urban Life Hackathon powered by ESA - the European Space Agency). I developed a similar project last year at the NASA Space Apps competition, which won first place at the local level and went into the finals. Here's a link of the 30s video submission we made to the NASA jury: ICARUS. This time I want to continue to develop this idea using real data, which you can provide. So far I'm satisfied with the services SoDa provided both comprehensive data and service documentation and excellent customer support. I hope we can continue our collaboration."
#134 | Radiation | HChourIncl | CYRAENEAU project: Modeling the water/heat transfers in the water/energy cycle | March. 2018 |
User: Pierre Seraphin, Mines Paristech, Centre de géosciences - Equipe SHR, Fontainebleau, France
"I am currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the SHR team to study the water resource. Made available by SoDa, these data feed a soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model. Then this model will be coupled with a groundwater and surface water model and applied to the Avenelles watershed (Seine-et-Marne, France). This tool will allow to improve the water resource management in a context of climate change, and better understand the impacts of thermo-dependent industries. We are very satisfied with the SoDa platform and recommend its use."
#133 | Radiation | Agate data volum | Research to look closer at the market for renewables in France | March. 2018 |
User: Edvard Von Sydow, SITE, Stockholm, Sweden
"I'm a research assistant at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) working with associate professor Chloé Le Coq on a project exploring the energy market in France. SITE is a research institute and think tank that has a primary focus on the transition economies of the Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. The data will be used in research to look closer at the market for renewables in France, and possibly elsewhere. So far my satisfaction with the SoDa Service has been very good!"
#132 | Radiation | Agate data volum | Energy technology and energy management issues | March. 2018 |
User: Fabian Jetter, Research Centre of Energy Economics (FfE e.V), Germany
"I'm working at the Research Centre of Energy Economics (FfE e.V). The FfE is an independent research institute that focuses on energy technology and energy management issues (https://www.ffe.de/en/). As a research assistant with a geographical background I'm partly responsible for our data management system (based on Postgresql) with all of its data, spatial analysis with GIS (especially PostGIS) and the regionalization of information which is relevant for our energy system. For example we regionalize the future installed capacity of renewable energy plants for the German 'net development plan' or perform power grid calculations. For calculating regional power profiles of photovoltaic plants for different weather years I would need time series of the irradiation in a highly spatial (a 0.2° grid step is perfect) as well as temporal resolution (a time step of one minute would be devine). At the moment we use the cosmo-eu modell with a temporal resolution of one hour. With the use of the AGATE-data we expect a significant improvement of our model. Up to now I'm highly satisfied with the SoDa Service ☺."
#131 | Radiation | Agate data volum | Calibrate NWP outcomes for the purpose of solar power production forecasting | Feb. 2018 |
User: Karolina Szafranek, Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, University of Warsaw, Poland
"We have used satellite radiation dataset "AGATE" over Europe to calibrate our Numerical Weather Predition (NWP) outcomes for the purpose of solar power production forecasting. We are grateful to the SoDa team (represented by Ms. Mathilde Marchand) for the high quality of the shared data and their support for our research."
#130 | Radiation | HC15Incl | Develop algoritm and web platform | Feb. 2018 |
User: Gabriele G, LCR Servizi, Italy
"LRC is an small Italian company that work in web platform to provide system online that are used in many type of application. Our target is develop algoritm and web platform (back end and front end) for user B2B that work in Internet of Things, machine-to-machine, smart grid system etc. Our goal is combine many elements derived from measures, forecasts and calculations to generate analytical indexes able to give strategic information to our users. Some of these fundamental elements are meteorological parameters (measured data or estimated data), that combined with other type of data sources they allow us to construct ever more real scenarios. Radiation data it's very important data for this type of application, it's one of the most important elements used in applications about energy efficiency indexes sector. The service offered by SoDa Service it is optimal and with an good level of quality."
#129 | Radiation | HCmonth | Analyses de rendement sur des centrales photovoltaïques | Feb. 2018 |
User: Ludovic Wolff, TRYBA ENERGY, Gundershoffen, France
" La société TRYBA ENERGY est spécialisée dans l'investissement, le développement et l'exploitation de centrales PV en France et à l'international. Notre service O&M gère un parc de 40 MWc (monitoring, maintenance préventive et curative). Nous utilisons les données d'irradiation et de température afin de réaliser des analyses de rendement sur des centrales photovoltaïques. Nous sommes entièrement satisfaits de la qualité des données ainsi que de la réactivité des équipes de Transvalor. "
#128 | Radiation | HChourIncl-DNI | Calculer les ratios de performances | Feb. 2018 |
User: Laurent Leynaud, SOLIGEST, Montelimar, France
"Soligest, filiale du groupe Dubreuil, œuvre depuis 2007 dans le développement, le dimensionnement, l'installation et l'exploitation des centrales solaires photovoltaïques raccordées en basse et haute tension. Nous gérons un parc d'une puissance de 24MWc composé d'une centaine de sites. Voici un patchwork des mots qui décrivent mon activité : Diagnostic, reporting, évaluation des performances, réparation, entretien, développement, monitoring, normes, sécurité, pilotage de drone, … C'est assez varié ! Les données d'irradiation fournies me permettent d'avoir le Performance Ratio mensuel de chacun des sites afin d'avoir une vue globale de la santé de nos centrales. J'apprécie l'intérêt, la flexibilité et la disponibilité de la très sympathique équipe de Transvalor. Les données sont fiables et régulièrement améliorées. "
#127 | Radiation | HC1minDNI | Evaluer les performances, concevoir et chiffrer un parc photovoltaïque | Feb. 2018 |
User: Guillaume Pinçon, CAP VERT ENERGY, Marseille, France
"Producteur indépendant d'énergies renouvelables, Cap Vert Energie développe, finance et construit des centrales solaires et des unités de méthanisation pour les exploiter en propre dans la durée. Le groupe vient de lancer son activité hydroélectricité. L'objectif du groupe est d'apporter des réponses durables aux besoins énergétiques et environnementaux des entreprises et des collectivités dans un modèle de vente directe de l'énergie. Implanté à Marseille, avec des bureaux régionaux à Toulouse, Rennes et Fontainebleau, Cap Vert Energie est présent à l'international en Afrique et au travers ses filiales au Chili et en Amérique du Nord. Le parc en exploitation et en construction totalise 100 MW de puissance cumulée, pour un chiffre d'affaires énergétique prévisionnel de 28 millions d'euros. L'entreprise emploie 75 salariés. Pour ma part, je suis en charge du développement technique de centrales solaires en Afrique, tant au sol qu'en toiture, sur tout type de réseau (on-gri, off-grid) conçues pour des clients privés. Définir les ressources solaires sur un site, évaluer les performances, concevoir et chiffrer un parc photovoltaïque dans ses moindres détails fait partie de mon quotidien, c'est pourquoi les données SoDa me sont essentielles dans l'évaluation des performances photovoltaïques et dans la mise en place d'outils dédiés en interne. L'actualisation de données précises, les possibilités techniques, le coût raisonnable et la réactivité des services sont des points clés dans notre choix de fourniture chez Transvalor. "
#126 | Radiation | Jade data volum | Energy transition in Africa with renewable microgrids for rural electrification | Feb. 2018 |
User: Nicolas Plain, PhD Student, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, Institute for Geosciences and Environmental research (IGE) Grenoble Applied Economics Lab (GAEL), F-38000 Grenoble, France
"I'm a PhD Candidate in second year on energy transition in Africa with renewable microgrids for rural electrification. Our laboratory is working on a better estimation of the different renewable resources for high penetration scenarios in the electricity sector. We will use the solar data from Soda to better estimate the solar resource over the whole African continent for off-grid system. We enjoy working with the entire soda team we met during the one week solar resource training they give each year at Sophia Antipolis. They are very responsive and answer with great interest to all our questions. "
#125 | Radiation | HC15DNI | Study of solar district heating | Jan. 2018 |
User: Michel Guenther, master student in Energy Systems at FH Aachen, Germany
"My name is Michel Guenther, I'm working on my master thesis in Luxembourg. The goal of the master thesis is to investigate if solar (supported) district heating is economically interesting in Luxembourg. Furthermore I'm going to analyze some energy storage options for the mentioned purpose (daily or seasonal storage). In a first step the obtained solar radiation data will be used to compare the energy output of some solar collector types with the actual heat load of the network. In the second step the data is used as input data for a Matlab simulink simulation of the complete system. I am very pleased with the data and the endless possibilities regarding time step and time period. Also the fact that the CAMS Radiation Service can be used for free is an important benefit and should be highlighted. On top of that comes a really good and fast service and customer support."
#124 | Radiation | HC3hourIncl +Meteo | Soiling analysis and optimisation of the cleaning frequency | Dec. 2017 |
User: Engineer in a French PME, located South West of France
"Je suis Responsable Offre et Ingénierie PV au sein d'une entreprise d'un Groupe International. Nous sommes Constructeurs, Opérateurs et Mainteneurs de centrales photovoltaïques. Dans le cadre de notre activité d'O&M sur une centrale au sol multimégawatts, nous avons souhaité comparer les données satellites proposées par SoDa à celles que nous mesurons sur site. Ce site souffrant d'un empoussièrement particulièrement élevé, nous avons souhaité étudier les différences entre données mesurées sur site et données mesurées par satellite. Grâce à la précision des données que SoDa nous a fournies, nous allons juger de la pertinence de nos mesures in situ et nous validerons la fréquence de nettoyage de nos capteurs d'irradiation. "
#123 | Radiation | HC15Incl | Étude de sites | Dec. 2017 |
User: William Anderson, PE, a PhD student at Naval Postgraduate School Monterey and Director, Utilities Engineering, NAVFAC EXWC, Port Hueneme, California, USA
"I am researching optimization of remote island green microgrids considering complexity and using predictive modelling tools. I intend to use the data in MATLAB's neural network toolbox for predictive modelling of power generation from solar PV radiance. I am very satisfied with SoDA's service in that I have used it for Isle of Eigg and Canary Islands."
#122 | Radiation | HChourDNI_10min | Étude de sites | Sept. 2017 |
User: Benoit Fayolle, chargé de la R&D à Okwind et des grands projets, France
"Okwind conçoit et fabrique des équipement de génération EnR et stockage pour l'autonomie des sites intermédiaires. Nous utilisons les données SoDa pour réaliser des études de site (gisement solaire), essentiellement pour notre activité trackers photovoltaïques, ainsi que pour valider les performances de ceux-ci. nous avons peu recourru à SoDa pour l'instant donc difficile de juger. Les pas de temps proposés sont intéressants pour nos applications. J'aimerai avoir un peu plus d'environnement sur les données manquantes (-999), notamment si vous proposez des stratégies pour leur estimation (années 2004 et 2005)."
#121 | Radiation | HChourDNI | Hybrid microgrids energy management | Sept. 2017 |
User: Dr. Pierryves Padey, collaborateur scientifique au Laboratoire d'Energétique Solaire et de physique du BATiment (LESBAT) de la Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO, Suisse)
"La Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidentale (HES-SO) représentée par la HEIG-VD et le Laboratoire d'Energétique Solaire et de Physique du Bâtiment (LESBAT) et l'institut 2iE sont actuellement impliqués dans un projet dédié à l'éco-habitat adapté au contexte sahélien. Ce projet est financé par la Direction du Développement et de la Coopération Suisse (DDC) dans le cadre du programme 3E (Eau - Energie - Environnement). Dans le cadre de ce projet, le LESBAT avait besoin de données météorologiques précises afin de valider un modèle numérique de bâtiment construit au Burkina Faso. Les données fournies par l'équipe de Transvalor, nous ont permis de mener à bien cette tâche et ce en l'absence de mesures météorologiques fiables sur site. Nous sommes entièrement satisfait de la qualité des données transmises par Transvalor et recommandons ce service à toute personnes ayant besoin de données météorologique de qualité."
#120 | Radiation | HC15Incl (archives, realtime and forecast) | Hybrid microgrids energy management | August 2017 |
User: Martín Pablo Marietta, PhD candidate in Electronic Engineering at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya - BarcelonaTech, Spain
"My daily work is centered in the field of hybrid microgrids energy management. I´m studying the application of predictive control techniques in microgrids power electronics converters and the use of forecast and historical data is essential to determine the climatological scenarios in which these systems operate. The web services provides by SoDa: Helioclim-3 forecast (similarity and persistence) and CAMS radiation services are being of great value for my PhD Thesis. I am particularly grateful to the SODA team for providing a wide service that supports the academic research in the renewable energies field."
#119 | Radiation | HChourIncl | Logiciel de conseil énergétique | July 2017 |
User: Calire Brousse, Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs Léonard de Vinci, France.
"Les données fournis par SoDa nous furent d'un grand recours ! Nous sommes 5 étudiants et nous avons travaillé un an durant sur un projet: Solar-Home. C'est un logiciel de conseil énergétique qui permet à l'utilisateur de visualiser son potentiel de production d'énergie grâce au solaire, et d'obtenir une cartographie de l'ensoleillement de son toit au cours de l'année. Il nous fallait pour réaliser le logiciel des données météorologiques du lieu où se trouve le toit du batiment étudié. Ces données, très difficiles à trouver (surtout avec la quantité et la précision dont nous avions besoins) nous ont été fournis par SoDa. Notre logiciel peut donc désormais faire des calculs précis en utilisant un riche historique de l'ensoleillement sur les zones étudiées. Les bases de données de SoDa et de Transvalor sont très complètes et facilement utilisables! Cela a été pour nous un véritable coup de pouce, de plus l'équipe de SoDa nous a conseillés et aidés dans la construction de ce projet grâce à des explications et des précisions tout au long du projet."
#118 | Radiation | HC30minDNI | Urban peer-to-peer energy exchange | June 2017 |
User: Noam Naveh, MSc student in Architectural Computation for the Bartlett, University College of London, UK.
"The SoDa team have kindly helped me by contributing their high-quality sun radiation data. The information is used for my thesis which addresses urban peer-to-peer energy exchange. The staff at SoDa was extreme helpful, generous and kind. Many thanks!"
#117 | Radiation | HChour | Ecoconception des bâtimens | June 2017 |
User: Simon Ligier, doctorant à Mines ParisTech au Centre Efficacité énergétiques des systèmes, France.
" L'équipe de recherche dont je fais partie s'intéresse à l'écoconception des bâtiments via la modélisation de leur comportement énergétique et de leurs impacts environnementaux. Les données météorologiques annuelles de température et de rayonnement solaire fournies par HelioClim-3 ont été utilisées pour valider une méthode de génération stochastique de données climatiques synthétiques. L'objectif de l'étude est de caractériser l'influence de la variabilité météorologique sur les consommations énergétiques des bâtiments. Les données obtenues ont permis de mener à bien cette validation."
#116 | Radiation | CAMS radiation AGATE volume | PV energy reanalysis | May 2017 |
User: Luca Grigoletto, LRC company, Italy.
"I work for a italian company named LRC. We use solar radiation data for studies in the PV energy reanalysis for single PV implants to estimate energy production.
I am thankful for the download."
#115 | Radiation | UV from HC3 | Water disinfection | May 2017 |
User: Roudollah Farhadi, Urmia University, Iran.
"I am a PhD student in Urmia University, Iran. I am researching on water disinfection by solar radiation. I successfully run my simulation with your data. I greatly appreciate SoDa team for letting me access these valuable data."
#114 | Radiation | HC15Incl | Simulation numerique d'une centrale solaire à concentrateurs cylindro-paraboliques | Apr. 2017 |
"Mes activités quotidiennes sont la recherche, au laboratoire d'Analyse des Technologies de l'Energie et de l'Environnement (LATEE). J'utilise les données SoDa pour estimer le rayonnement solaire direct-normal au Tchad, dans l'optique de faire une simulation numerique d'une centrale solaire à concentrateurs cylindro-paraboliques. Le service SoDa m'a permi d'acceder aux données solaires de la zone d'étude, données difficilement accessibles par manque d'appareil de mesure mais également en raison de périodes de maintenance."
#113 | Other | MSG locations | Satellite cloud analysis | Apr. 2017 |
"I needed the locations of the centers of Meteosat-10 and Meteosat-8 (41.5°) pixels to work on satellite analysis clouds, and in particular for my applications in atmospheric dynamics. SoDa provided me with the first information, and I am thankful for this service. For more information on my research topics, please visit my page."
#112 | Other | MSG locations | Land surface validation | Mar. 2017 |
"I asked SoDa to send me the locations of the centers of the Meteosat Second Generation pixels in Spain to help me select a site for land surface temperature validation. I appreciated their reactivity."
#111 | Radiation | HC1min | Evaluate the PV panels yield and techniques to increase it by cooling or spectral selection | Feb. 2017 |
"I am an energy researcher and doctorate student at Escola Politécnica da Univesidade de São Paulo. Our research is to modeling the primary solar energy available to evaluate the PV panels yield and techniques to increase it by cooling or spectral selection. The SoDa data will be used to validate the long therm modeling with a short term terrestrial measurement, as a high resolution time/space data it will be helpfull to achieve the project aims."
#110 | Radiation | HCdayIncl | Watch plants, analyze Performance Ratio values and prevent continuous running of plants | Nov. 2016 |
"Konar Energy is an EPC company which builds up Renevable Energy Plants. We have been doing O&M works for watching plants, analyzing PR values and preventing continuous running of plants. We will use your data to analyse our producing deeply. We are happy that SoDa Service will provide useful data to analyse and increase our PR values."
#109 | Radiation | HChour | New concept of non-permanent photovoltaic system deployed fields | Oct. 2016 |
"Depuis plusieurs années les étudiants en première année de Chimie ParisTech mènent des projets interdisciplinaires dans le domaine du solaire photovoltaïque. [...] Il s'agissait d'étudier le nouveau concept de systèmes photovoltaïques légers deployables ponctuellement, sans conflit d'espace, dans les champs, lors de périodes ensoleillées en dehors des périodes de culture. [...] Nous avons contacté l'équipe d' « In Sun We Trust» qui nous a mis en relation avec TRANSVALOR. Ils ont pu répondre de façon remarquable à notre demande. Nous tenons à remercier [ces deux entités] pour leur capacité d'écoute et de réactivité pour ce projet exploratoire des étudiants."
#108 | Radiation | CAMS-RAD | Irradiation solaire et photographie/vidéo | Oct. 2016 |
"Je suis un photographe et vidéaste. Je réalise des reportages en photo et vidéo ainsi que de la photographie d'art. J'uitlise les variation de l'irradiation solaire comme variation de la luminosité dans une vidéo. Je suis globalement très satisfait du service et notamment de la précision des données et de la facilité d'utilisation du système."
#107 | UV | UV from HelioClim-1 | Climate characterization for the study of the "inula montana" plant in Lubéron, France | Oct. 2016 |
"We used the UV-A and UV-B radiation values derived from HelioClim-1 to characterize the climate of three wild sites in Lubéron where a plant grows and which is part of a regional project : the "inula montana". We wish we could also use more recent UV data, for instance via a similar service based on HelioClim-3. Transvalor provided us with three time series of UV data computed from HelioClim-3 version 5 sent by email to complete our analysis.
It is quite complex to find a suitable information on the SoDa website. Documentation is spartiate. There is a redundancy with the soda-is.com website. However, we are very happy with the contact by email once estalished."
#106 | Radiation | CAMS-RAD | Complementarity of renewable energy in a global scale | Sept. 2016 |
"I am a master student in ETH Zurich and currently an intern in ABB corporate research center, power system group. The aim of my reseach is to find the complementarity of renewable energy in a global scale. The irradiation data is good for its high resolution both in time and space. We can derive solor power based on these solar irradiance. We are satisfied for the data quality (despite some reliability of data is low), but we also wish that you can provide some easy-use API to download the data in batches."
#105 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | Study of the flux density distribution for the Linear Fresnel Reflector | June 2016 |
"I'm a PhD student in renewable energy field. I needed data provided by SoDa to study the flux density distribution of a trapezoidal cavity absorber for the Linear Fresnel Reflector installed on the city of Meknes (Morocco). Those data greatly helped me to obtain results that I'm looking for using Tonatiuh software.
After a long search of this data, I finally contact the SoDa team that provide detailed information, so I would like to thank SoDa team for their help and support for scientific research. Publication: doi=ajsr.2018.96.104"
#104 | Radiation | HC3v5_15min | Variation in solar radiation through a data gathering period September 2015 | Mar. 2016 |
"I work on the impact of viticultural and environmental variables on grape and wine aroma. Data provided by Soda were used to get an idea of the variation in solar radiation through a data gathering period. These data might also be useful in the future to model grape surface temperature dynamics. The Soda staff was very friendly and reactive. Thanks for your availability."
#103 | Radiation | HC3v5_15min | Database comparison objectives | Mar. 2016 |
"Je travaille sur le design des centrales hybrides au sein d'Akuo Energy, producteur indépendant d'électricité à partir des sources renouvelables. Les données de SoDa nous ont permis d'évaluer la précision des mesures satellites comparées aux relevés sur site. Ayant eu accès aux bases Helioclim-3 et MACC RAD (CMAS), cette étude a aussi permis de comparer les sources entre elles. Nous sommes très satisfaits des données fournies et du suivi commercial associé."
#102 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | Optimization algorithm for residential buildings | Mar. 2016 |
"Working on demand response optimization algorithm for residential buildings. Radiation data will be used to model load demand under different weather scenarios considering multiple sites and architectonic settings. HC3v5hourDNI data will useful in order to model building thermal load. I really appreciate all support to research being done by SoDa"
#101 | Radiation | MACC-RAD | Comparison of solar radiation data and ground measurements | Mar. 2016 |
"The SoDa data was very helpful for my student work. It aimed on the one hand to evaluate the correlation between insolation data between satellit and on-site measurements, on the other hand to compare the with the results of some atmosphere models. The results was very satifying and I am thankfull."
#100 | Radiation | HC3v4_SimilarityForecast | Cooling and power generation research | Feb. 2016 |
"The areas of my research group is on utilizing solar energy for cooling and power generation. We are currently developing Typical Meteorological Years (TMYs) for Oman and due to the scarcity in ground measurements we are considering using satellite data for solar radiation. I used the SoDa HelioClim-3 Forecast service for some days and compared them with actual measurements. I noticed good agreement especially towards the mid-day hours. The relative error tends to be higher at the beginning and end of the day. The forecast figures were reasonable for our activities."
#99 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | Solar desalination systems | Feb. 2016 |
"Solar Data provided by SoDa shall be used to analyze the feasibility of in-direct Solar desalination systems as of the current technological developments, hence posing the requirement of the most recent solar irradiation data. The data will be used for computing the net availability of solar energy to run a Multi-Stage Flash (MSF) desalination plant power by a solar Trough collectors and a RO (Reverse Osmosis) desalination plant powered by a PV farm. Finally, it would be analyzed which of the two Indirect Solar desalination configuration provides a sustainable efficient and feasible solution for a set region and production flow rate. All queries made were promptly responded and with the most encouraging attitudes even though no costs were involved. Whereas everything nowadays seems to hold a price tag. I appreciate SoDa for all the data they had provided and hope my acknowledgement benefits them."
#98 | Radiation | HC3v5-hourDNI | Calculation of available energy with parabolic trough collector | Feb. 2016 |
"The data provided shall be used for determining the direct beam irradiation with regard to parabolic trough collector available at a specific location which would help in determining the energy from sun. The energy available from sun would further be used in analyzing the amount of electricity that could be generated. I would rate the services provided to be excellent (A++) for the following reasons: i) prompt timely support ii) very friendly attitude and response to queries, iii) very informative data with precise information, avoiding confusion by not overloading with heaps of unwanted data and iiii) last but not the least, student friendly to provide information without any costs which any company would rarely encourage."
#97 | UV | UV derived from HC3v5 | Protective compounds (flavonoids) in plants as a biological response to abiotic stressors such as UV radiation | Nov. 2015 |
User: José Carlos del Valle, student at Pablo de Olavide University, Spain
"My name is José Carlos del Valle. I am a PhD student at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain. We are investigating the synthesis of protective compounds such as flavonoids in plants as a biological response to abiotic stressors such as UV radiation. Thanks to SoDa, we obtained the data on UV radiation in several populations throughout the coast of the Iberian Peninsula, which helped us to unravel the relationship between the synthesis of these compounds and UV radiation. SoDa Service was extremely helpful, and we are very grateful for their kindness and throughout our research. In addition, they also provided us with the HelioClim-3-derived UV data for two locations that are of interest for future research." Download the corresponding publication
#96 | Radiation | MACC-RAD | Cost efficiency of municipal energy system | Oct. 2015 |
"The SoDa information helped me a lot. I used the free MACC-RAD portlet to retrieve solar radiation time series for by Bachelor thesis. My bachelor thesis subject if the analysis of a municipal energy system with regards to cost-efficiency, by using portfolio theory. For several energy generation technologies, I compute the levelized costs of Energy (LCOE) on an hourly basis in order to set up a power plant dispatch that takes into account not only the absolute cost, but also the cost and generation risk. For the PV technology, I used the hourly global radiation retrieved from the MACC-RAD database to compute the LCOE of PV. I thank SoDa for providing this information."
#95 | Radiation | HC3v5month | Solar radiance evolution | Oct. 2015 |
User: Enrique Backhaus (Senior Consultant), Renewable team of Infrata
"Prior to this I worked in EDF for 3 years in the Retailing and Thermal Generation departments. Infrata is a lender's and sponsor's technical advisory covering Renewable energy, Infrastructure, Rail and Aviation. In particular our role is to advise potential sellers their overall performance and technical and contractual position. The data would be used to understand the solar irradiance evolution and effect on roof-top and ground mounted solar systems. I consider that my queries were treaded by SoDa is a professional and timely manner."
#94 | Radiation | HC3v5hour and MERRA | Optimized hybrid energy systems | Oct. 2015 |
User: Alireza Ebrahimi, graduate student in electrical engineering at Semnan University.
"I need Weather data for my Master's thesis. The topic is the cost and operation optimization of a hybrid energy systems including wind turbines, solar cell, battery and diesel generator. In particular, I needed long term time series of wind and radiation information for the site of Semnan, Iran. I am thankful to SoDa and Transvalor for having sent me this information which supports my research work."
#93 | Radiation | HC3v5_10min | Solar irradiation forecast - Tilos project H2020 | October 2015 |
User: Fabrice Motte, Ingénieur de recherche Projet Tilos, laboratoire de Sciences pour l'Environnement de l'Université de Corse Pasquale Paoli
"Le laboratoire participe à un projet Horizon 2020. Dans le cadre du projet Tilos (Technology Innovation for the Local Scale, Optimum Integration of Battery Energy Storage), une station météorologique dédiée a été mise en place et permet de mesurer la ressource solaire. Les données fournies par HelioClim-3 et SoDa vont nous permettre de développer et valider nos modèles prédictifs sur une base temporelle de données plus conséquente. Les données fournies par HelioClim nous ont permis de travailler en 2013 sur une nouvelle méthode de prédiction du rayonnement solaire avec un horizon temporel d'une heure en combinant prévisions stochastiques basées sur des mesures au sol, données satellites et traitements d'images. Dans cette démarche, le service Soda a parfaitement répondu à nos attentes."
#92 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | Solar data for building applications | August 2015 |
User: Parag Rastogi, doctoral assistant, Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Performance Integrated Design LIPID of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), CH
"I study the interaction of indoor environment (i.e. in buildings) with the outdoor climate, especially the climate change. I will use SoDa data for case studies. It is very important to understand the building answers located in different areas and compare results between these areas. I am very glad to receive data supplied by the SoDa service which was fast and convenient."
#91 | Radiation | HC3v5_10min | Solar irradiation forecast | August 2015 |
User: Yashwant Kashyap, PhD Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, IN
"My research topic covers the solar irradiation forecasting. HelioClim-3 AOD and clear sky irradiation data obtained via the SoDa website help me to improve the performance of forecasting with different irradiation models. I am pleased with the SoDa facility that has replied all my queries and facilitated me to recover data"
#90 | Radiation | HC3v5hour | Atmospheric irradiation modelling | August 2015 |
User: Yassine Maanane, Research trainee in Atmospheric Environment Teaching and Research Centre (CEREA), joint École des Ponts ParisTech and EDF R&D laboratory, FR
"My research subject concerns the atmospheric irradiation modelling. HelioClim-3 data obtained via the SoDa website allowed me to compare different atmospheric irradiation models. I am totally satisfied with the SoDa service that has answered all my questions and helped me to retrieve data".
#89 | Radiation | HC3v5month | Check the performance of PV equipment | August 2015 |
User: Robert Kröni, Jendra Power, Managing Director, CH
"Jendra Power works as certified expert for photovoltaic equipment (TUV) on various solar power plant located all over Europe. Very often, our task consists of checking the performance over a certain time. To fulfill this task we need monthly solar radiation data for various and changing locations in Europe. We will use global horizontal radiation to adjust the forecasted production of a power plant. We take the long term monthly radiation (at least 10 year average) of the chosen site and use the actual data to adjust the forecast. We have been checking several sources of global radiation. The best source is always ground measured data. But unfortunately it's not always available. SoDa is flexible and provides quickly data for any place within the range of the satellite. In summer data is very accurate, within the error range of ground data. In winter time the deviation is still larger, but "best available guess".
#88 | Radiation | HC3v5hourIncl | Monitor a large number of sites in southern UK | August 2015 |
User: John O'Toole, Renesola, UK.
"Our purpose is to monitor a large number of sites in the UK, perhaps 300 in total. The sites will generally be in the South of the UK, and we would like hourly data over a tilted plane, typically 20 Degrees, Azimuth 180 (South).
The SoDa team sent us two samples of data, so that we can make our mind on their data. SoDa support were always very prompt and helpful dealing with our technical and commercial queries in relation to high frequency, high volume solar data provision."
#87 | Radiation | HC3v5Month | Effect of solar radiation on tree fruiting patterns in Kibale National Park, Uganda | August 2015 |
User: Kevin Potts, Augsburg College, PhD, Minneapolis, USA
"We are investigating the extent to which solar radiation influences tree fruiting phenology in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and how it interacts with other abiotic and biotic features to produce temporal fluctuations in food availability for chimpanzees in the forest."
#86 | Radiation | HC3v5_15Incl | Yield analysis and performance review of photovoltaic power plants | July 2015 |
User: Markus Vogel, g2kv GmbH, Consulting and Engineering office for Photovoltaics, Germany
"As technical advisors we frequently require long term weather and irradiation data in order to produce yield analysis for photovoltaic power plants. Satellite data give a reliable source, especially when local weather station are not available or far away. In addition we frequently conduct performance review of PV power plant. In order to bench mark the irradiation measured on site we find the services provided very useful."
#85 | Radiation | HC3v5_15 | Wireless telemetry devices and automated meter reading | July 2015 |
User: Graham Adams, technical lead for the company which is ASL Holdings Ltd
ASL, based in Northampton, England. ASL is a
"We are a leading provider of wireless telemetry devices and automated meter reading (AMR) services in the UK primarily in green energy (Solar PV, Wind Farms, Electric Vehicle) and the commercial electricity supply industry. We also provide solutions for remote asset tracking and monitoring in many other industry segments.
We are using the HelioClim data to provide more accurate performance monitoring services for our Solar PV clients, and to improve the ability to predict the financial return of Solar PV systems.
We are very pleased with the data quality and service we receive from the SoDa service."
#84 | Radiation | HC3v5_15 and HC3v5_day | Simulation for Cement company based in Zambia | July 2015 |
"We are a project team within a Cement company, based in Zambia. We are currently working on a solar project aiming to fully power a Long Conveyor Belt. We have already used HelioClim-3 radiation values to pre-size our solar installation and convinced of the reliability and wealth of this database, we have again collected historical irradiation data over the last years for simulation purpose. We are grateful to SoDa team and look forward to continue our collaboration with them."
#83 | Radiation | HC3v4_forecast | Feedbacks of the test period of this service: March to April 2015 | June 2015 |
User: R. Escada Chohfi, GeoDesign, Brazil.
"This service will be suitable to services that GeoDesign will provide in the near future. At the moment, I do not have any recommendation to enhance the quality of the service. I just tested the service on a single location (lat/lon) because I ran out of time widen the analysis. My next application will be to test the service on a larger area.
I thank SoDa to have let me test it for a while, and I look forward to receive updates on the last innovations."
#82 | Radiation | HC3v4_current day | Feedbacks of the test period of this service: March to April 2015 | June 2015 |
User: Mr. André Schumann, SolPEG GmbH.
"Yes, we have downloaded data for 6 sites on daily basis until end of March. We did this as a routine and did not find the time yet to analyze the data.
The quality of the data would be interesting for us regarding possible future services. At the moment we do not have a "product" for which we could use the data directly.
I will let SoDa know our opinion as soon as we found time to have a look at the data."
#81 | Radiation | HC3v4_currentday | Feedbacks of the test period of this service: March to April 2015 | June 2015 |
User: O.Guillet, EMOTIC, Nantes, France.
"Indeed, we only launched a very limited number of requests. We didn't test the full capability of this service providing HelioClim-3 radiation values in real time and forecasts until the end of the current day.
However, we already know that the service fully fits our current needs, and we plan to use it in a near future, sometime in the last trimester 2015. We are still in the design phase of the projects with our own customers, but the content meets to our expectations. Ideally, we would also like that this Web service could also be available in REST and transmitting the data in JSON format for an enhanced automatisation with our own software."
#80 | Radiation | HC3v5_15 | Comparison survey between the PV-yield obtained from HelioClim-3 version 5 and Transmission System Operator PV Feed-In data | June 2015 |
User: S. Raths, Institute of High Voltage Technology, Aachen, Germany.
"We ordered a large volume of 15 minutes Global Horizontal Irradiation values over Europe with a spatial resolution of 20 km. We performed a backtest to generate historical PV-Time Series for Europe that we validated against the PV Feed-In data published by the national Transmission System Operators. The correlation was around 97% for northern Europe as well as in the south."
#79 | Radiation | HC3v5_15Incl | Production Forecast typical day (daily changes) and battery sizing | June 2015 |
User: A. Barret, HELEXIA, Roubaix, France. Started in 2010, HELEXIA develops, finance and designs roof integrated pv plants.
"Every month, we use HC3 monthly data to compare our PV-plant production. We are currently looking how to add self-powered lighting under car parks. To do that, we need to understand typical days - specially with big daily changes - to design batteries. HC3v5_15Incl allows us to pick the days we are interested in, and check the battery design on those specific days according to different self-powered times. I thank the SoDa team for these precious data."
#78 | Radiation | HC3v4_forecast | Forecast data to build optimized scenarios for the use of heating or air equipement | May 2015 |
User: C. Berthuet, EFFICIENCIA, Toulouse, France.
"The influence of sunlight radiation on the energy needs of a building (for heating or cooling) can be very important depending on the type of construction and the use made of it.
With forecast data provided by SoDa, we can anticipate these specific needs for the day ahead to build optimized scenarios for the use of heating and air conditioning equipment.
For example, we exploit the inherent inertia of the building for 'storing' heat at favorable moments, or we offer optimized scenarios of shutters use to control solar gain preserving natural light.
These scenarios are then used by integrators who will instrument a facility to automate the operation (eg as part of an energy consumption cut-off)."
#77 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | Spatial and temporal prediction models for the evaluation of renewable energy supply potential in Switzerland | May 2015 |
"I am a Ph.D. student in the Solar Energy and Building Physics lab (LESO-PB) at EPFL in Switzerland, and work on spatial and temporal prediction models to evaluate renewable energy supply potential in Switzerland, using Machine Learning algorithms. My work is part of a SCCER (Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research) Swiss national project aiming at reducing fossil fuels and increasing the use and integration of renewable energies in Swiss urban areas, the « Future Energy Efficient Buildings & Districts » project. The HChourDNI-3v5 data provided are enabling me to conduct a study to estimate monthly rooftop photovoltaic solar potential in Switzerland, with really recent and reliable hourly data for various Swiss sites.
The support team is very responsive and available, and the very good quality of the data they offer makes SoDa probably one of the best solar data web services out there!"
#76 | Radiation | HC3v5hour | Rainforest sensivity to climate in Central Africa | Apr. 2015 |
"I have been using the irradiance data developped by SODA in the framework of researches dedicated to rainforest sensivity to climate in Central Africa. The high spatio-temporal resolution of the HelioClim product enables documenting irradiance evolution over a range of time-scales from the diurnal cycle to the interannual variability. For what I have seen it agrees well with rainfall and nebulosity satellite products over the region. The team has always responded positively to my requests (provision of data, help with the product documentation...) a point I definitely appreciate."
#75 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | National Energy Strategy in Morocco and renewable electricity mix scenario | March 2015 |
User: Mr. Alaa Alhamwi, Ph.D. student, NEXT ENERGY- EWE Research Centre for Energy Technology.
"The Moroccan National Energy Strategy is one of the most ambitious renewable energy strategies in the Middle East and North Africa. It aims to install 42% of total installed capacity by 2020 from renewable resources, with equal proportions of installed capacity for solar, wind and hydropower resources. This strategy is investigated in a paper (see reference below) which quantifies the optimal configurations of renewable energy resources and assesses the strategic Moroccan power generation mix from a meteorological perspective. For this purpose, the hourly solar irradiation data in 2010 were provided by the Solar Radiation Data Service (SoDa) for 5 different locations in Morocco."
Ref: A., , , , 2015. "Moroccan National Energy Strategy reviewed from a meteorological perspective", Energy Strategy Reviews, Elsevier, Vol. 6, Jan. 2015, pages 39–47.
#74 | Radiation | HC3v5monthIncl | Energetic performance of PV plants | March 2015 |
User: Mr. Adrien MONSEMPÈS, System Off Grid, France.
"En tant que bureau d'études en EnR, nous utilisons les données d'irradiation d'Helioclim comme un outil perspicace afin d'expertiser la performance énergétique de centrales photovoltaïques. Nous sommes entièrement satisfait de la pertinence et précision de ces informations. D'autre part, Transvalor est toujours très disponible et accueillant dans tous leurs échanges. "
#73 | Radiation | HC3v5hourDNI | Validation benchmark | March 2015 |
User: Paolo Caraccio, METEOCA
"We have used a SODA global horizontal irradiance hourly time series to check carefully the solar potential of a location in South Africa comparing the result with some measurements to have a sort of validation benchmark. The comparison shown that the SODA time series were accurate, update and highly available as data consistency."70
#72 | Radiation | HC3v5monthIncl | Backoffice and solar asset management services to investors | Feb. 2015 |
User: Chrysovalantis Micrommatis and Leandro Sancho, Solar Asset Managers at Quintas Energy, London
"At Quintas Energy we provide specialised backoffice and solar asset management services to investors in the clean energy sector. HelioClim is one of several data sources we use for yield analysis of the solar PV sites we manage. The support from the SoDa team is excellent and we look forward to continue our collaboration with them."
#71 | Radiation | HC3v515DNI 70 | Prediction of Power Production for Moroccan Solar farms | Jan. 2015 |
User: Mr. Youssef El Aomariyine, PhD student at the International University of Rabat, Morocco
"I am a IT PhD student and the topic of my PhD work is 'Prediction of Power Production for Moroccan Solar farms'. The data provided by HelioClim-3v5 greatly help me compare and validate different prediction algorithms. I found the radiation data to be very useful because they provide detailed information, are precise and because they are always available and updated every day.
I would like to thank the SODA Team for the quality of data, their help and their support for scientific research."
#70 | Radiation | HC3v5monthDNI | PV yield assessment | Jan. 2015 |
User: Mr. André Schumann, SolPEG GmbH.
"HelioClim is one of several data sources we usually evaluate for our independent yield assessments of PV projects. We appreciate the kind support and continuous development of the database by the SoDa Team".
#69 | Radiation | HC3v5monthIncl | PV yield assessment | Jan. 2015 |
User: Mr. Pierrick Morier, VOLTA ENVIRONNEMENT (Utility).
"I use HelioClim databases to get irradiation statistics which I fail to find in any other third party databases. These data are provided in a timely manner and meet perfectly our expectations both in terms of reliability and smoothness of the processes. We recommend the SODA solution for all PV professionals.".
#68 | Radiation | HC3v415Incl | TEPOS: "TErritoire à énergie POSitive", energetic automony horizon 2050. | Jan. 2015 |
User: Mr. Ludovic Vincent, ENER-BAT, France.
"Les données ont permis d'établir avec le croisement d'autres facteurs, le potentiel de production d'énergie solaire de manière plus précise sur ce territoire. Le territoire en question souhaite s'engager dans une démarche appelée TEPOS (territoire à énergie positive, autonomie énergétique à horizon 2050), de fait toutes les ressources potentielles sont étudiées. Ceci doit permettre une production locale et indépendante afin de s'affranchir de la centralisation du marché de l'énergie (électrique notamment) et de l'énergie produite à partir des centrales nucléaires.
Nous remercions SoDa pour les données fournies."
#67 | Radiation | HC3v4hourIncl | Application for the performance monitoring of the solar installation of our client. | Dec. 2014 |
User: Ivan Theunissen and Dan Nita, Visionnear, Romania.
"The scope of the application has the purpose to give to potential clients a platform where they can follow up the performance of their solar installation. Our client is Ampires (in cc of this mail) for who we develop the application.
Your proposal to open the service till Feb 1st should give us more than time to test the application with real data. Thank you for your collaboration and for sure we keep you informed with the progress made".
#66 | Radiation | HC3v5day | Daily GHI values for agriculture in Argentina | Dec. 2014 |
User: Dr. Gabriela Lakkis, Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias.
"Argentina is a country where the agriculture is one of the most important sources of production and solar radiation is a key factor in that issue. We are dealing with many estimation models and solar radiation data must be as exact as possible. The SoDa website provided us HelioClim-3 data for the cities we need to analyze and the support of the webside was very quick and helpfull. We want to thank SoDa for this support".
#65 | Radiation | HC-3v4hour | Simulation of economic optimization model for virtual power plant | Nov. 2014 |
User: Sri Rahayu, Hoschule Aschaffenburg.
"In Aschaffenburg, Germany, we are working to make a simulation of economic optimization model for virtual power plant which consist of PV system and other power plant from renewables. In a short word, we sould be able to do a maximization of profit of the power plant operators in the future by providing them the profitable options in how to participate into energy market based on either forecasted power production or forecasted electricity price. For PV system, in this case, we strongly need the forecasted data of solar irradiation in order to get perspective of the solar PV production in the near future. We happily found HelioClim that would help us to get the data. Many thanks !".
#64 | Radiation | HC-3v4-15 | P50 –P90 PV-storage plant yield estimation | Nov. 2014 |
User: ARTELIA Eau & Environnement.
"In order to increase penetration of PV generated electricity in small to medium size grids, large battery systems are used linked to PV power plants and driven by complex Energy Management Systems (EMS). SODA provided us with reliable and extensive 15min data that allowed us to compute accurately the EMS working for power plant projects, design the systems and provide a relevant P50-P90 yield of the plants.
We were really pleased by the quality and efficiency of SODA services and look forward to work with SODA in our future projects".
#63 | Radiation | HC3v4-15 | Comparison of solar radiation data | Nov. 2014 |
User: María Gómez Bardón, student at 'Universidad Europea', Spain.
"As a renewable energy student, one of my modules is photovoltaic energ, so my first work is to compare solar radiations data of different cities around the world in a minimum period of one year and analyzing the deviation of the data. I searched on the internet on all the websites that I could find, but any of them gave me all the info that I needed. I was loocking for global, direct and diffuse radiation monthly.
Finally SoDa-website provided me all what I needed, the data was clear and easy to process. Also I contacted with the support and it was very quick and helpfull. I'm very satisfied to obtain the monthly Helioclim-3 data for the cities that I wanted, which allow me to make a comparative study for solar radiation in these cities".
#62 | Radiation | HC3v4-15 | Simulation of GHI through Markov Chains | Nov. 2014 |
User: Giovanni Carbone, engineering student at Sapienza, University of Roma.
"In order to create synthetic GHI data series for a specific site, I used a helioclim-3 10 years series. I particularly needed clear-sky and real radiation values with a resolution of 15 minutes. Through the historical series, it was possible to create a simulator that, using Markov chains, is capable of generating a large number of data series with indefinite extension and statistical characteristic similar to the original. The synthetic data was later used to simulate the power output of a photovoltaic plant and evaluate (technically and economically) the effects of different storage system technologies. I want to thank SoDa for the support. The series was indispensable to my work for the master thesis".
#61 | Radiation | HC3v4day | Study of the factors influencing nucleation of raindrops | Oct. 2014 |
User: José Manuel Fernández Guisuraga, student at the University of Leon, in Spain.
"In conjunction to other inputs such as cloud coverage, relative humidity, particulate matter, wind speed and pressure, I needed daily radiation values in order to study the factors influencing nucleation of raindrops in a urban and a rural area. I chose two sites in Portugal since all the parameters except solar radiation are available. I thank Transvalor and SoDa which sent me these two time series needed to complete this study as part of my end-of-degree project. I am very satisfied with the service provided by SoDa; the requested data has a great overall quality and it fitted perfectly with my study".
#60 | Radiation | HC3v4day | Modelling of spruce bark beetle population dynamics in the Tatra Mts. (Carpathians), using satellite derived solar radiation data | Oct. 2014 |
User: Pavel Mezei, Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
"Spruce bark beetle can cause widespread damages during its outbreaks in spruce forests. Norway spruce is the most common tree species in Central Europe, especially in Slovakia, Czech republic, Austria and Germany.
The yearly development of spruce bark beetle depends on temperature and solar radiation. There is an existing model on the phenology (number of generations per year) of Spruce bark beetle, called PHENIPS, and one of the basic input, among with maximum air temperature and mean air temperature, is the daily solar radiation in Wh/m2.
We were very satisfied to receive the daily HelioClim-3v4 irradiation values for 5 sites in the Tatra Mts, which contributes to our modelling aiming at showing a potential statistical relationship between spruce
bark beetle population dynamics and spruce tree mortality."
Download here a summary of Pavel's work with the corresponding bibliography.
News Nov. 2014: A manuscript for a scientific journal is being prepared on this thematic.
#59 | Radiation | HC3v4hourIncl | Assessment of PV power source reliability, off-grid, wireless systems | Mar. 2014 |
User: Gustaw Mazurek, assistant professor at the Warsaw University of Technology.
Helioclim-3 database offers on-demand solar radiation data in horizontal, inclined, and normal plane and in fine spatial and temporal resolution. Access to the data is granted via simple but powerful web interface.
Results of our research show that Helioclim-3 database delivers estimations of solar irradiation on a tilted plane (GTI) with noticeably better accuracy than other databases available in the web. Moreover, thanks to fine temporal resolution and timeliness of this database, it is possible to evaluate the performance and reliability of any solar system with higher precision and confidence level.
Reference: Mazurek G., 2014. "Estimation of Solar Irradiation on Inclined Surface Based on Web Databases", Intl. Journal of Electronics and Telecommunications, Vol. 60, No. 4, 2014, pages 315–320.
#58 | Radiation | HC3v415full | Solar powered bike sharing system with electric bikes | June 2014 |
User: Fabian Fogelberg, Master's Thesis Intern at Viktoria Swedish ICT, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.
"In my master's thesis, I looked at the energy balance and possible station design of a solar powered bike sharing system with electric bikes. As the solar panels would be placed in an urban setting where buildings will shade the panels, it is not clear how the panels should be oriented for maximum energy yield. With the detailed datasets from SoDa however, it was possible for me to both calculate the optimum orientation as well as model the pool system in high temporal resolution."
#57 | Radiation | HC3v4monthIncl | France, Spain, solar resource assessment | Mar. 2014 |
User: Juan Rubio, consultant, G-advisory, Madrid, Spain.
In the frame of a solar resource assessment in the region of Constantin, near Bordeaux (France), HelioClim3 has provided us with updated solar radiation data, which has been used in our study, allowing us to estimate the annual equivalent sun hours and therefore, the return on a potential solar power investment over the area. Date: March 2014
#56 | Radiation | HCday | Harmful algal bloom, toxicity, Microcystis aeruginosa | Mar. 2014 |
User: Algirdas Svanys, Marine Science and Technology Centre, Klaipeda University, Lithuania
"In order to investigate how do environmental factors effect developments and toxicity of harmful cyanobacterial blooms I performed a field study in Villerest reservoir (France) in 2009. I hypothesized that solar radiation may have an effect on the toxicity of cyanobacterial blooms. SoDa has kindly provided me the solar radiation data and I highly appreciate their contribution."
#55 | Radiation | HC3v4month | Performance ratio, Italy | Mar. 2014 |
User: Andrea Vezzani, SOLAMA, Italy
"I'm working for a company that makes asset management for photovoltaic and I need some data to verify the performance ratio of the system. The database of soda was recommended to me by a friend who plans photovoltaic systems. Transvalor sent us a free dataset for our study. We were glad to have this collaboration with SoDa."
#54 | Radiation | HC15Incl | comparison between HelioClim and ground station measurements | Dec. 2013 |
User: GES company
GES is a world leader in construction and services in both wind and solar technologies. The relationship with SoDa is established through the operation and maintenance department, specifically when taking the radiation estimations that SoDa performs from Meteosat data for a particular world location with specific conditions, so that may we know the precision of them once compared with the actual recorded readings from the meteorological stations of such plants, with remarkable results.
The main goal of this collaboration is to be able to trust the estimations done by SoDa as reliable measures in case of exceptional situations that may occur in facilities located all over the world, such as damages to certain elements of their very own weather stations.
#53 | Radiation | hc3v4hourIncl | solar potential of Denmark | Nov. 2013 |
User: Patrick Narbel, PhD Research Scholar, Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen, Norway.
After forecasting the electricity production profile of two hypothetical wind farms in Denmark, I tried to do the same with a hypothetical solar power plant. Using this information, I want to show that solar power can be valuable in Denmark, even though solar radiation levels are not that "exciting" in that country (the value of solar power comes from the fact that there is already a lot of wind and adding more wind turbines just adds power when there is no need for it, whereas solar can contribute during times with little wind). I want to use this result to show that existing policy instruments need to be adjusted in order to reflect this "value". SODA provided me with the data on solar radiations, which made the whole comparison between electricity production from wind and sun comparable.
#52 | Radiation | HC3v415Incl | Optimisation of a hybrid PV-diesel-batteries system | Sept. 2013 |
User: Benoit Le Maistre, Master OSE MINES ParisTech, missionned at EDF SEI
"Pour alimenter les zones isolées des réseaux et difficilement accessibles, EDF SEI, développe et exploite des centrales de production hybrides dans des villages de l'intérieur guyanais. EDF SEI cherche à minimiser l'utilisation de moteurs diesel en les intégrant à des systèmes photovoltaïque-diesel-batteries. Le site d'étude est le village de Kaw en Guyane Française et les données utilisées pour valider l'outil et effectuer les premiers tests sont des données HelioClim-3 version 4 sur un pas de temps de 15 minutes.
Nous remercions Transvalor et SoDa pour la provision de ces données."
Download the extended testimony in French and in English
#51 | Radiation | HC3v4hour | Germany, industry-funded research project, technical and economical interconnection of the regional electricity and heat market | Aug. 2013 |
User: K.H., Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology
"For the region of Northern Hesse two reputable research institutes and the municipal utilities analyse the transformation of the energy supply system towards a decentral and renewable power supply. For this the feed from solar cells and solar heat is simulated on an hourly basis. The solar radiation data of Transvalor are valuable inputs for the simulations. Transvalor is a reliable and helpful partner an we are glad to work together for some time now."
#50 | Atmosphere | Linke turbidity factor | Thermic model for cockpit | Jul. 2013 |
User: Joseph Guindi, Ingénieur Thermicien, Altran GmbH, Hambourg
"Mon projet consiste en la création d'un modèle thermique d'une cabine de pilotage afin de calculer les charges thermiques (chauffage et refroidissement) et le confort des pilotes. Un des composants les plus importants de l'équilibre thermique de la cabine de pilotage est tout particulièrement la radiation solaire. Toutefois, je trouvais que la méthode employée méritait d'être optimisée, alors j'ai entrepris de réviser sa méthode de calcul afin de pouvoir la déterminer peu importe la localisation d'un avion, au sol ou en vol, et de tenir en compte autant de variables possibles. Étant donné que la turbidité est un facteur régional qui ne fluctue pas de manière journalière, et qu'elle a un effet substantiel sur la radiation solaire et donc le confort thermique, il était rendu nécessaire et utile de la modéliser. Il était aussi essentiel de limiter le nombre de variables environnementales à rentrer dans l'outil afin de ne pas le rendre trop lourd. La base de donnée à l'échelle planétaire mise à ma disposition via le service SoDa permettra éventuellement à l'ingénieur de placer son avion où et quand il voudra, et de calculer automatiquement et correctement la radiation solaire transmise à la cabine de pilotage (ou ailleurs dans l'avion, à l'avenir). "
#49 | Radiation | TMY DNI P50 and P90 | CPV project | Jul. 2013 |
User: F. K., South French PV Company
"Our collaboration with SODA was really successful. They could provide us DNI data very quickly and with all the support for our CPV project. So now we can do our own yield simulations on PVsyst which is fundamental for such a project. SODA team was really reactive and nice. We were completely satisfied by their service, their professionalism and their support."
#48 | Radiation | HC3v4hour | Performance ratio | Jun. 2013 |
User: R. F., UK company
"A leading German developer and EPC of ground based solar PV required almost real-time site specific irradiation and temperature data for a 6 week period in order to bench-mark one of its UK project's Performance Ratio (PR). We turned to Transvalor who offered a sample of satellite data to suited our immediate need. We received this on the turn and in user friendly format. We found the response and ease of working with Transvalor re-freshing and hope to be able to develop a long term relationship for the supply of this and other types of data for our whole group and sites across Europe. Thanks especially to Dr Claire Thomas for her assistance."
#47 | Radiation | HC3v4month | long-term fluctuations in the water level of a mountain lake | Date: Jun. 2013 |
User: Isabella Bertani, University of Parma, Italy
A post-doc researcher at the University of Parma (Italy) is working on the effects of extreme weather events on a mountain lake. To analyse variability in the amount of light reaching lake bottom in relation to long-term fluctuations in water level, a 25-year time-series of irradiance data was requested for a specific geographic location. After receiving the requested data, researchers working on the project gave their positive opinion on the service: "We are very grateful for the high-quality service provided by the staff at MINES ParisTech / ARMINES / TRANSVALOR. We received the requested data immediately after we asked for it, and the staff was also very helpful in answering some questions regarding data quality. Our experience with MINES ParisTech / ARMINES / TRANSVALOR was definitely positive, and the provided data will be of great value for our research project".
#46 | Radiation Temperature | HC3v4hourIncl MERRA | Commercial service, Greece, pv sector | Jun. 2013 |
User: Vangelis Liaskas, OTENET, Greece
A privately owned company from Greece, intends to offer a commercial service to its clients in the photovoltaic sector. For this purpose the company requested a quotation for near real time irradiance and ambient temperature data. To this extent and in order to evaluate the data and their format a free sample was requested for a specific set of coordinates in Greece. After the provision of the sample data the company expressed its satisfaction: " We are very impressed of the professionalism and the support received by the whole team of Transvalor. No matter of the success of our project or the suitability of the data, our communication was the opportunity to set up a meeting during the Intersolar 2013 event".
#45 | Radiation | HC3v4hourIncl | Impact of new energy systems | May 2013 |
User: Rebecca Aron, Consultant, Artelys, Paris, France.
"We are building a complete energy model (from production to consumption) of a local area in order to assess the impact of new energy systems implementation. Such systems should have an impact on the flexibility and shape of demand chronicles, and it is therefore essential to have an accurate representation of the local renewable intermittent production at a fine time step. SoDa's irradiation data helped us rebuilt the local photovoltaic production. "
#44 | Radiation | HC15Incl | Optimisation of a hybrid PV-Battery system for a site in Namibia | Mar. 2013 |
User: Mrs. Ghada Merei, PhD student at the institute for power electronics and electrical drives (ISEA) in RWTH Aachen University – Germany
"For a research project we optimize a hybrid PV-Battery system for a site in Namibia. To do the optimization the solar data is needed (direct, diffuse and global radiation). Since the irradiation data from ground weather stations is not available, it was the only way to get it from SoDa. The staff was very supportive and sent us the irradiation data for this location in a time step of 10 min over 10 years immediately. We found the HelioClim data very helpful for our research. It is a great solution for the researchers working in this field. Many thanks!"
#43 | Radiation | HC15Incl | Detection of PV panel defects | Feb. 2013 |
User: Mohammed TELIDJANE, first year of PhD at Laboratoire D'Analyse des Signaux et Processus Industriels basé à Roanne université Jean Monnet Saint-Étienne.
"Je travaille sur un sujet de recherche concernant la détection des défauts dans les panneaux photovoltaïques dans le cadre de la maintenance préventive. Je veux me servir des données météorologiques de la base SoDa dans mes travaux de thèse afin que je puisse étudier le caractère des signaux comme l'ensoleillement et la température de Roanne. La base de données SoDa va m'aider pour avoir un ensemble de données riches de ma région sur plusieurs années et avec différents pas d'échantillonnage."
#42 | Radiation | HChourIncl | Validation of income forecasts for photovoltaic plants | Nov. 2012 |
Service . User: Ralf Clausen, Kiel's University of Applied Sciences (FH Kiel), Germany, Bachelor Student
"I searched for solar radiation data for working at my bachelor thesis about validating income forecasts for photovoltaic plants. It was very difficult for a non-meteorologist user to know what data do I really need and how can I get it. So I was very happy to find the SoDa-website. Here I found a very good service and help for my questions.
I was very satisfied with the service, because I got the data very quickly and it was good structured. Nothing missed and so I was able to work with the data without any problems. Thank you very much!"
#41 | Radiation | HCHour | Design of a PV plant in Romania | Nov. 2012 |
User: Nicoleta Boghean, Romania.
She wrote: "I was searching the internet trying to find relevant information on solar radiation and I was pleasantly surprised to found a website where I found reliable and complete information: SoDa website. This website has an extensive database ready for the client at every moment. The information provided by SoDa are essential in designing our first solar park (0,85MW) that will be placed in Romania, Zabrani village, Arad county. The SoDa staff was very helpfull, they responded in a very short time and they were very nice. The SoDa website will definitely be our database in the future for other projects. "
#40 | Radiation | HChourIncl | Dynamic thermal modeling of buildings and durability modeling of facades | Nov. 2012 |
User: Ludovic Fülöp, D.Sc.(Tech.) Senior Scientist, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Espoo, Finland
He writes: "We use the data in dynamic thermal modeling of buildings and durability modeling of facades. It is quite challenging to find hourly solar data. While other meteorological elements are collected, solar data is often missing. It may take many email exchanges with Meteorological Institutes to just discover that data does not exist for a particular time window in one particular station. SoDa offers wide areal coverage and data presented in a very accessible format. A potential user can quickly understand what data there is, and how it will look like when downloaded. This is very important advantage for non-meteorologist users, who come from the side of the applications".
#39 | Radiation | HChourIncl averaged over each week | Sizing of solar system in South Africa (not possible to export energy in this country) | Oct. 2012 |
User: Mr Johan Buys, solar project developer, Paarl, South Africa
"We had previously used the free database to generate estimates, but the data was for one year only and in some days incomplete. In October 2012, we made contact with Transvalor to enquire how we can get bulk data for multiple periods. We were able to get the data very quickly. To normalize the data we excluded the invalid days, produced data by week number and hour instead of day and hour, and then used statistical method to exclude the outliers.
The importance of this exercise is striking when one compares the normalized data to the total as well as any one year Single years varied by nearly 10% in total annual output. This variance is obviously even more extreme at the week and hour level. The resulting output (from simple spreadsheet exercise) now gives us a more reliable / bankable model of the probable solar irradiation for every week of a year and by time of day. This is important for planning our electrical loads and matching to our solar system, as systems in our country are not allowed to export - getting the sizing right is therefore crucial to the financial outcome".
#38 | Radiation | HCday | Calibrate of remotely-sensed vegetation water-use models based on satellite imagery | Oct. 2012 |
User: Mr. Dave Barz, Senior Spatial Scientist at HydroBio Advanced Remote Sensing, Santa Fe New Mexico. www.hydrobioars.com
He used global radiation values to help calibrate remotely-sensed vegetation water-use models based on satellite imagery. He contacted TRANSVALOR S.A. in October 2012 to obtain seasonal data from a number of different locations across Europe that matched the experimental plots he was monitoring. He writes: "When I was searching the web for reliable solar data, I was pleased to find the SoDa website that offered solar data across such a vast region. I found the data readily available and exactly what I needed. I was able to quickly acquire data from multiple locations that would have taken much longer if I had to collect it from separate nation weather bureaus. The SoDa staff was responsive and helpful with my order. The SoDa solar products will allow us to more easily expand our calibaration efforts in the future."
#37 | Radiation | HChour | Sizing the solar modules, South Africa | Oct. 2012 |
User: Mr. Gorkem Soyumer, Master Student at EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland.
The hourly HelioClim GHI, humidity and temperature values are the inputs of his simulation to calculate the optimal size of solar modules to be installed at a non-profit residential application. The project was counducted at EPFL (www.epfl.ch). In October 2012, Mr. Soyumer contacted TRANSVALOR S.A. to have access to hourly irridation values for a remote location in Southern Africa where the geographical coordinates are known with high accuracy. He has indicated his satisfaction with the GHI values provided by the SoDa website: "The accuracy and format of HelioClim data renders PV simulations to be done in a much reliable way".
#36 | Radiation | HChour | Confort of users, simulator for sport devices and surfaces | Aug. 2012 |
User: Mr. Pascal Haxaire, technical manager at LABOSPORT, le Mans, France.
He used the hourly HelioClim GHI values in a simulator in order to optimize the confort of users. The inputs of this simulator are hourly GHI, humidity and temperature. In late August 2012, he contacted TRANSVALOR S.A. in order to know if it was possible to have similar irradiation values for other sites worldwide, outside the coverage of Meteosat. He wrote: "I am satisfied with the GHI values provided by the SoDa website. The accuracy of these data is well adapted to our activities. The HelioClim data generated a value-added information that allow us to offer new services on what I already handled".
#35 | Radiation | HChourDNI | CSP, South Mediterranean region, electricity market model | Aug. 2012 |
User: Mr. Bernhard Brand, PhD student, employee at Wupperstal Institute, In Germany.
Mr. Brand published a first article based on the free HelioClim irradiation values.
Reference: Brand. B., A.B. Stambouli, D. Zelji, 2012. "The value of dispatchability of CSP plants in the electricity systems of Morocco and Algeria", Energy Policy, Vol. 47, pp.:321-331.
He used the HelioClim values processed by the System Advisor Model software to obtain the hourly collector field output values for the site of Ouarzazate, Morocco.
In August 2012, he purchased 12 time series of HChourDNI values for the year 2010, one for each main country around the Mediterranean coast. He wrote: " I will use these data in an electricity market model for a research purpose".
#34 | Radiation | HCday | PV installation monitoring, PVsol software | July 2012 |
User: Mr. Matthew Rose, an Master of Science student in Renewable Energy in the Built Environment, studying at The Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Wale.
His report concerns the assessment of the actual generation of a 3.23kWp PV installation from Sep 2010 to March 2012 against the (projected) modelled output using PV*Sol software and HelioClim irradiation data specific to location and timeframe. 3D modelling of near and horizon shading used. He wrote: "Without the HelioClim data it would be very hard to conduct this analysis, as irradiation data from ground weather stations is not of sufficient proximity to enable a meaningful analysis of the installation's performance. "
#33 | Radiation | HC15 | Energy consumption management in micro-grids with back-up PV/battery power source | Mar. 2012 |
User: Mr. Masoud Salehi, Masters degree, Iran.
He wrote: "My name is Masoud Salehi and I am studding in a Master of Science degree at the Imam Khomeini International University. The 15 minutes HelioClim GHI dataset helped me in solar radiation analysis and modeling contribute to my dissertation. My dissertation subject is Energy consumption management in micro grids with back-up PV/Battery hybrid power source to optimize consumer costs too. Here is a link to a power point presentation, in Persian language. An English version will be available soon"
#32 |
Radiation Temperature |
Climatic normals, Meteotest (not available anymore) | PV system performance | Feb. 2012 |
User: Amy Bilton, a graduate student at MIT
She used data from "Global radiation on inclined surfaces and temperatures from normal years" to analyze a PV system for a paper that she was currently writing. She was grateful for this free service.
#31 | RadiationLinke turbidity factor | Solar Energy Physics | Feb. 2012 |
"My name is Nald Erusiafe and I am a post-graduate student of University of Lagos, Lagos Nigeria. I am pursuing a Ph.D degree in Physics specializing in the field of Solar Energy Physics. My research work involves trying to estimate the amount of ground - reaching solar radiation and atmospheric turbidity from satellite images. I will like to use the HelioClim data as a reference and also for the determination of Linke turbidity factor since HC is based on the successful Heliosat method."
#30 | Radiation | HC-3v315Incl | Integration of renewable energies in North Frisia into the electrical grid | Jun. 2011 |
User: Mr. Nico Buerker, Masters thesis, Industrial Engineer for Energy and Environmental Management, Germany.
"For this I'm simulating the feed-in of renewables within this region. The objective of my thesis is the evaluation of the transmission requirements in dependence of the exploitation of renewable energies, as well as the analysis of alternative opportunities for the integration of renewable energies into the grid in the case of insufficient grid extension. The HelioClim database contributes to my simulation of photovoltaic feed-in power with a temporal resolution of 15 minutes."
#29 | Radiation | HC-3v3hourDNI | Treatment of Water by the Solar Distillation method, Ile Ife, Nigeria | May 2011 |
User: Mr. Omololu Ogunseye, final year Civil Engineering student in Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria.
"It is basically harnessing or harvesting the energy from the sun (Renewable Energy source) for Water Treatment. The data requested will give me an idea of the amount of energy possible in the location specified in my earlier emails to you. And since, I am still at the proposal stage; having an idea of the possible amount of solar energy that can be got at this location will help me justify in my proposal the need for this research at the location."
#28 | Radiation | HCmonth | Comparison of a ground station measurement campaign with HelioClim-3 for a site in Mauritania | May 2011 |
Service . User: Mrs A.D., SOR-ENERGIE, France
"Nous avions besoin de valeurs mensuelles de rayonnement global horizontal sur ce site en Mauritanie pour les mois de Mars 2010 à Avril 2011 inclus (soit 14 données au total). Notre objectif était de comparer les données provenant d'une campagne de mesure de plus d'une année en mesurant le rayonnement global horizontal ainsi que d'autres paramètres (T° ambiante, T° sous modules, vent,...) sur le site concerné par une future implantation de centrale PV en Afrique du Nord. Ce site étant très éloigné de toutes mesures de stations météorologiques, nous avons donc recours aux données de rayonnement HélioClim3 pour comparer les deux sources de données sur la même période (données mesurées sur place et données satellites) et pour envisager ce que seraient les données mesurées sur une période long terme (par comparaison avec les données satellites long terme mises à disposition sur le site de Soda-is)."
#27 | Radiation | Maps of radiation (yearly GHI and DNI) over Greece | Search for alternative energy sources | Apr. 2011 |
User: Mr. T. Moumtzakis, doing a Masters degree at the School of Applied Technology in the Department of Oil and Gas, Greece.
His research topic is to gather information and measurements concerning the amount of gas and oil into the ground, as well as radiation information at ground level, in order to explore how alternative sources of energy can be used in Southern Europe against gas and oil for heating and cooling buildings. In this framework, he relied on the yearly GHI (Global Horizontal) and DNI (Direct Normal) maps of irradiation over the Greek territory.
#26 | UV | UV and spectral distribution (old SoDa website) | Health, sclerosis | 2010 |
User: researcher in the Neurology domain.
The SoDa Service has one set of data for UV in the world. This climatic data set has been used several times in health studies. For instance, they were used in the following scientific publication about multiple sclerosis:
Orton S.-M., L. Wald, C. Confavreux, S. Vukusic, J.P. Krohn, S.V. Ramagopalan, B.M. Herrera, A.D. Sadovnick, and G.C. Ebers, FMedSci, 2010. Association of UV radiation with multiple sclerosis prevalence and sex ratio in France. Published in Neurology, Copyright © 2011 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.
#25 | Radiation | HC3day | Radiation map and Typical Meteorological Years for Uruguay | August 2009 |
User: Gonzalo Abal, Instituto de Física, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad de la República Montevideo, Uruguay.
"Our research project consists in condensing all available radiation data (from different sources and time periods) to produce a first detailed solar irradiation map for our territory. The Heliosat method is one of them. We also aim at producing a "typical solar radiation year" which can be used for simulation of thermal and photovoltaic solar installations, but also for agronomical considerations about annual yield of crops. The approx. 7900 Meteosat Second Generation pixels / HelioClim-3 time series which cover Uruguay will be combined with the in-situ measurements in order to provide for free to the community the map and typical years. We contemplate to purchase an annual subscription to access the HelioClim-3 data."
#24 | Radiation | HC3hour | Production of hydrogen from renewable energy | May 2009 |
User: Anais Idelon, EDF R&D, Département EPI, Centre des Renardières, 77818 Moret sur Loing.
"Dans le cadre d'une étude technico-économique sur la production d'hydrogène à partir d'énergie renouvelable, la base de données HelioClim-3 a été utilisée. C'est une base de données complète qui décrit heure par heure sur une année entière les radiation solaire en un point. Cette base de donnée a permi grâce à l'aide d'un logiciel spécifique, de calculer la production énergétique d'un parc photovoltaïque de plusieurs mégawatts. Nous sommes trés satisfaits par les services Soda qui permettent d'avoir accés de façon rapide et simple à des bases de données complètes et fiables."
#23 | Radiation | HC3dayIncl | Ageing of buildings with meteorological parameters | April 2009 |
User: Petra Rüther, has a MSc in Civil Engineering from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany, and currently writing her PhD thesis at the Norvegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway.
"I am studying the ageing of different wood materials when exposed outdoors, especially how their appearance changes with time and how those processes can be receated in the laboratory. Material samples are exposed on vertical walls facing south, east, north and west. The prevailing weather conditions, especially wind driven rain and solar radiation, vary significantly depending on the exposure direction. Hence, it is crucl to not only know solar radiation doses on horizontal surfaces, but also on inclined surfaces, in my case vertical walls.
SoDa services provide easy and especially user-friendly access to those data. I also compared data measured on horizontal surfaces at the site and found a bery good correlation to data provided by SoDa. Also, I especially appreciated the up-to-dateness of the data."
#22 | Radiation | HC1+NASA-SSE | Solar Energy in Africa, the GEO | Nov. 2007 |
The SoDa Service has been associated to the activities of the Group for Earth Observation (GEO) thanks to the efforts made by the International Energy Agency (SHC Task 36). The GEO, initiated by the G8, gathers approx. 70 nations (including the European Commission). The GEO identified nine "benefital social areas". One of them is energy. NASA and MINES ParisTech / Armines promoted a success story in this domain, which is one of the 30 success stories to be shown to the ministerial council for all nine domains. Videos were prepared for the GEO plenary session and ministerial summit held in Cape Town in November 2007. The success story shows four real cases achievements in Africa exploiting solar energy. The design of these systems was made possible by exploiting the SoDa Service, that permits itself to combine the databases SSE and HelioClim from NASA and Armines / MINES ParisTech.
#21 | UV | UV and spectral distribution | Buildings, materials | Apr. 2007 |
User: Thorsten Frost
Mr. Frost and his collaborators study the weathering of coatings on glass substrates. UV radiation plays an important role. These engineers exploit the SoDa Service to gain knowledge in the geographical distribution of the UV radiation and exposure difference in different European countries.
#20 | Radiation | HC | Water, impact of the climate changes on a drinking water reservoir | Apr. 2007 |
User: Dr. Lothar Paul
Dr. Lothar is a researcher with the Neunzehnhain Ecology Station, a laboratory of the Technical University of Dresden in Germany. He is studying the climate change impacts on a drinking water reservoir system. He wrote "HelioClim data delivered by the SoDa Service were found to be close to our own measurements. It was very good. The reliability of the SoDa Service is excellent and it is very easy to use. However, the availability of the HelioClim database and of other databases changed during time and made our access difficult at times. We appreciated very much HelioClim when it was free. It would have been a good help to achieve our task. It is excellent, reliable, and provides long series of consistent values. However, it is too expensive; we cannot afford to suscribe to HelioClim data, nor to get conventional meteorological data".
#19 | Radiation | Free radiation services in general | Irradiation on industrial sites | Mar. 2007 |
User: Stéphanie De Roux, from the company Butagaz
She used the SoDa Service as a one-shot usage, to obtain the maximum irradiance over its industrial sites. Stéphanie De Roux wrote that only satellite data can provide the informations on irradiance necessary to perform the computations and that the performance of the service was excellent.
#18 | Radiation | HC | Building, Thermal Regulation 2000/2005 | Nov. 2006 |
User: Bruno Peuportier, MINES ParisTech
Technical rules apply to building engineering; some of them relate to climate, including solar radiation and its three components: global, direct and diffuse. In France, it was shown that previous solar radiation data were obsolete (thermal regulation RT2000) and a new set is necessary (RT2005). The SoDa Service was used in this purpose in combination with data purchased to Meteo-France. It was found that using the SoDa Service provides a double benefit to create these new standards. It complements the data of Meteo-France when and where those are absent and provides in one click the three components while Meteo-France data are global radiation only and are to be entered into a specific software to obtain the other components. A revised standard data set was integrated into the standard RT2005.
Contact: bruno.peuportier(-at-)ensmp.fr.
#17 | Radiation | Solar irradiation maps from HC1 (Balkans) | Decision-support tools for the introduction of renewable energy systems in remote areas | July 2006 |
User: Rudjer Boskovic Institute (RBI) is the largest Croatian research centre in sciences and science applications.
He used maps of solar radiation in the Balkans created from the service Soda-HelioClim-1 provided by MINES ParisTech in the framework of the RISE project supported by the European Commission. These maps are much more accurate than the previous ones that resulted from interpolation of point measurements. The Rudjer Boskovic Institute helps local municipalities of Croatia in taking decision to invest in renewable energy systems for producing electricity in isolated sites.
#16 | Radiation | HC | Horticulture, daylighting, horticultural lamps - Greehouses | May 2006 |
User: Sander Pot, an Application Specialist Horticulture at Philips Lighting Professional Lamps,
Natural sunlight is the cheapest source available but for horticulture it is not always available in sufficient quantities. Especially in regions between 40 and 80 degrees latitude the amount of daylight required for good plant growth is limited during the winter. Therefore, during this period, the use of artificial light has become very common in greenhouses to increase production and quality. Philips is a company specialized in technology with a very strong lighting division. Philips is the world wide leader in offering horticultural lamps for the use of supplemental light in greenhouses. Sander Pot wrote: "The use of supplemental light is depending on many variables and the availability of natural daylight (global radiation) is one of them. When global radiation is lacking for good plant growth or for maintaining quality as it is often the case during winter, we can calculate how much artificial growthlight should be supplemented based on the need of the specific crop. Accurate knowledge about the amount of natural radiation is in this case essential. In horticultural areas this knowledge is often available since growers are using solarimeters on the top of their greenhouses. However in many areas, where horticulture is less developed or for potentional new horticultural areas, this information is not available or at least hard to get. For obtaining this information the use of the SoDa Service has shown to be very useful".
#15 | Radiation | HChour in wget | SPYCE, a residential PV monitoring solution | May 2006 |
SPYCE uses SoDa to monitor your PV system
PV system performance SPYCE is an internet service that detects and identifies failures in PV systems by daily analysing their performance. Because the energy output of PV systems strongly depends on the irradiation, SPYCE needs hourly irradiance data for the locations of the PV systems. Sandra Stettler, scientist in the SPYCE team explains: "To determine the performance of a PV system, current and precise irradiance data is absolutely necessary. With the SoDa data we have reliable, ongoing irradiation data for every location in Europe. It allows SPYCE to check daily the performance of all PV systems and to give alert to the operators if necessary." The SPYCE service is a Joint Venture of the Swiss companies Enecolo AG (photovoltaic experts) and Meteotest (meteorological expertise).
#14 | Atmosphere | Frequency of type of sky (old SoDa website) | Daylight performance of classrooms in Greece | Apr. 2006 |
User: Katerina Meresi, PhD in architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.
She has a MSc on Environmental Design of Buildings from Cardiff University, UK and is currently a PhD student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece. Her research area is the Daylight Performance of Classrooms in Greece. She wrote "In the past I used Satel-Light for daylight information and skies frequency for Athens and Thessaloniki. Now I will try to take advantage of the services SoDa offers. For example, the sky frequency information is very useful because it gives you an idea of what sky types you should take more into consideration when, e.g., simulating a room in a certain software".
#13 | Radiation | HC-1day | Climate and topoclimate of Oradea City | Apr. 2006 |
User: Aurelia Dumiter, a Ph.D student at University of Oradea, Romania, Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning
The title of her thesis is "The Climate and Topoclimate of Oradea City". She wrote "Unfortunately at this moment I was helplessly to finish my study about city climate because there is none actinometrical station nearby Oradea, in order to provide me data about solar radiation. In these conditions, finding on Internet the daily values of solar radiation of the database HelioClim-1 for the period 2000 - 2005 was a tremendous help. I thank you very much for that".
#12 |
Radiation Temperature Relative humidity |
EMPClimate | Buildings, certificates for materials | Jan. 2006 |
User: Mrs. Dalle, the Group Deceuninck
The Group Deceuninck, approx. 3000 employees worldwide, specializes itself in compounding, the design, development, extrusion and finishing of PVC systems and profiles for the construction industry and in recycling. Mrs Dalle is the responsible for guarantees and certificates, wrote that among her duties, she has to determine the amount of global solar radiation energy per year in a specific place in the world in kiloLangley per year, to help in fixing the strategy where the different raw materials, lacquers and foils are to be sold depending on the limitations specified by the supplier (solar radiation, climates, temperatures, rain, relative humidity) and finally to set up a warranty certificate depending on the specific region, use of the product, climate and solar radiation. Due to an excellent collaboration with the team in charge of the SoDa Service, she can now perform most of these tasks in a single click. In addition to solar radiation, the SoDa Service provides temperatures, and, relative humidity. Furthermore, the SoDa Service produced a worldwide map of the radiation that provides at a glance an accurate knowledge of the climate zones. Exploiting the SoDa Service represents a true gain in efficiency and in accuracy.
#11 | Radiation | HC | Rural electrification using solar energy in Africa | Jan. 2006 |
User: the company Lahmeyer, Germany
The German company Lahmeyer International provides the whole range of technologies and services with regard to energy infrastructure development and infrastructure improvement. Mathieu Sarran writes "Our consulting activities in rural electrification by means of solar energy request accurate data on solar radiation. In Africa, such data are inexistent in under-developed regions. Accordingly, Lahmeyer International install itself measuring stations. This induces costs and presence of local teams for data collection and maintenance. The availability of radiation data assessed from satellite images by the école des mines de Paris that can be accesssed through the SoDa Service is a real advantage for our company. The first benefit is that they are available at any site: there are more data than Lahmeyer International can install stations. The second benefit is that archives are available instantaneously while our measuring stations should work two full years before delivering a consistent and reliable time-series. Advantages are evident: fast access to information, reliability of information, large geographical coverage, dramatic decrease of costs for study and planning. By exploiting these data, Lahmeyer International can realise projects quicker, in a manner more reliable, more complete and more competitively. These advantages benefit also to the customers of Lahmeyer International since the studies cost less and are realised quicker".
#10 | Radiation | HChour | Solar energy for heating purpose | Nov. 2005 |
Sebastian Kranz is 18 years old and is attending the final year of the grammar school at Ansbach, in Bavaria, Germany. To pass the "Abitur", he realised an experiment with a solar panel. The hourly irradiation data he got from the SoDa Service helped him for this experiment and he was able to draw conclusions for his dissertation. He wrote "the SoDa Service was a great help". Take a look to a summary on his work.
#9 | UV | UV and spectral distribution | UV exposure, campaign of comparison UV dosimeter mesurements versus HelioClim1 | Sept. 2005 |
Users: Researchers in the field of dermatology, for a campaign of comparison between UVA and UVB collected with a dosimeter and the UVA and UVB estimated from the HelioClim1 dataset - UV exposure
Individual sun exposure can be assessed using meteorological satellite measurements. A study was performed to compare measurements of UVA and UVB exposure of children recorded with personal dosimeters with assessment through a detailed questionnaire and satellite measurements. Methods: 25 families with one index child participated in the study. Participants filled a questionnaire detailing daily activities, geographical location and circumstances of sun exposure. Corresponding satellite measurements of local UVA and UVB irradiation were obtained from the SoDa Service, and namely the database HelioClim. Results: Out of 353 days of sun exposure, 437 episodes were recorded with a dosimeter. Median duration of each session was 2 hours, 62 % of exposures occurring between 11 AM and 3 PM. There was a good correlation between measurements from dosimeter and satellite (r=0.48 for UVA; r=0.40 for UVB, Spearman correlation p<0.0001). Dosimeter records tend to underestimate the total exposure measured from the dosimeter (difference per session: 40 Wh/m2 UVA, 1.5 Wh/m2 UVB). The correlation was better for exposure in the sun (r=0.5 and 0.43 for UVA and UVB respectively), on the beach (r=0.57 and 0.42), at the seashore (r=0.64 and 0.40). Multivariate analysis adjusting for weather, exposure duration, horizontal or vertical use of dosimeter, shade, environment and activity showed that satellite measurements were only significantly influenced by the weather. Dosimeter records were essentially influenced by the type of use (81 % in UVA and 73 % in UVB decrease of measure when dosimeter was worn on the belt), exposures in the shade (54 % decrease for both UVA and UVB), environment (60 % decrease for UVA and 34 % for UVB for exposure in the country side). When adjusting for all variables, there was a significant independent correlation between dosimeter and satellite measurements (p < 0.0001 for UVA and UVB). Conclusion: Satellite measurements give a good estimate of individual UVA and UVB exposure, independently of exposure conditions and could be used to estimate actual exposure.
Poster P-113 presented at The 6th World Congress on Melanoma, Sept 6-10 2005, Vancouver, BC, Canada. Authors: M. Boniol (IARC, Lyon, France), MS. Cattaruzza* (Dept of Public Health, "La Sapienza" University, Rome, Italy), L. Wald (Ecole des Mines de Paris, Sophia Antipolis, France), MA. Richard (Dermatologie, Hopital Ste Marguerite, Marseille, France), MT. Leccia (Dermatologie, CHU Grenoble, France), F. Truchetet (Dermatologie, Thionville, France), C. Renoirte (Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium), P. Vereecken (Dermatologie, Hopital Erasme, Brussels, Belgium), P. Autier (Institut Jules Bordet, Brussels, Belgium), JF. Doré (INSERM U590 Lyon, France).
#8 | Radiation | HC1month | Sales of electricity produced by solar power | May 2005 |
User: Yvonne Dauwalder from BKW FMB Energy Ltd, a Swiss company supplying energy to one million people in around 400 communities in Switzerland.
In 2004 BKW supplied over 6'900 Gigawatt-hours of energy to private customers and distribution partners. BKW produces energy from hydro, nuclear, solar and wind power plants and is the principal partner in Switzerland's largest alternative energy production plants (Mont Soleil solar energy plant, Juvent wind power plant and the Stade de Suisse solar power plant). Yvonne Dauwalder used monthly sums of irradiation provided by SoDa as part of a monthly report about key factors influencing electricity sales to small and medium-sized businesses. Quoting Yvonne "thank you very much for the extensive SoDa Services, it is very convenient to use with detailed explanations and most amazingly, it is for free. It truly is one of a kind on the web!".
#7 | Radiation | HC1 | JRC integrates HC1 values into PVGIS over Africa | May 2005 |
Within the framework of "PV in the developing world", mapping solar energy
Irradiance data were obtained by the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC) – Institute for Sustainable Development from the SoDa service. JRC selected the SoDa service because it offers long time-series of irradiance values (from 1985 onwards) over a very large geographical coverage and it enables automatic access on Internet (approx. 200 000 requests for a year, that is 4 million requests made by JRC for 20 years). JRC was thus capable of creating unique maps and derived products to assess the value and benefits of solar energy systems to produce electricity in Africa, thus helping in combating poverty and developing human welfare. These maps are provided to African countries and European authorities to help decision-makers. The potential power output from PV systems is compared to the average daily electricity consumption per capita in the countries in question. The potentials of PV appear clearly; the potential production is much larger than the present consumption.
Reference: Thomas Huld, Marcel Šúri, Ewan Dunlop, Lucien Wald, Integrating the HelioClim-1 database into the PV-GIS to estimate solar electricity potential in Africa. In Proceedings of the 20th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, Barcelona 6-10 June 2005. More on PV-GIS.
#6 | UV | UV and spectral distribution | Health, cancer | Jan. 2005 |
Matthieu Boniol, from IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer), an institute of the World Health Organisation (WHO), and his co-workers, from the French research institute INSERM UMR 453, are comparing UV radiation data delivered by the SoDa Service to outputs from digital dosimeters that have been brought all day long by volunteers during their summer vacations. The study evidences the relationship between skin cancer, sun bathing habits, social parameters and typology of individuals.
#5 | UV | UV and spectral distribution | Health, pregnancy and vitamin D insufficiency | Jan. 2005 |
UK researchers from the University of Southampton, Royal London Hospital and Princess Anne Hospital Study Group, have studied the insufficiency of vitamin D in women of childbearing age. There is increasing evidence that the risk of osteoporotic fracture in later life may be determined, in part, by environmental influences during intrauterine and early postnatal growth. By studying a cohort of children, from birth to age of nine and their mothers during pregnancy, and by using UV data delivered by the SoDa Service, these researchers have found that maternal vitamin D insuffiency is common during pregnancy and is associated with reduced skeletal growth of the offspring during childhood; this relationship is mediated in part through umbilical venous calcium concentration. Vitamin D supplementation of pregnant women, especially during winter months, may lead to long-lasting reductions in the risk of osteoporotic fracture among their offspring. More on this story at the MRC Environmental Epidemiology Unit web site.
Reference: Javaid MK, Crozier SR, Harvey NC, Dennison EM, Boucher BJ, Arden NK, Godfrey KM, Cooper C, and the Princess Anne Hospital Study Group, 2005, Maternal vitamin D status during pregnancy and childhood bone mass at age nine years: A longitudinal observational study. To be submitted.
#4 | Radiation | HCday | Horticulture, Greenhouse growing, controlled irrigation using HelioClim | Jan. 2005 |
User: Mr. Peter Stradiot from the company Innogreen
Mr. Peter Stradiot is an agronomist, consultant for several international projects. His company Innogreen has a long experience in greenhouse growing, world wide. It exploits the SoDa Service on a regular basis for tomato growing. Irrigation of plants is controlled by the quantity of radiation received during a week. The use of the SoDa Service permits to avoid the installation of pyranometers on top of the greenhouses or to prepare projects for greenhouse installation.
#3 | Astronomy | Solar-Geometry | Lectures | Jan. 2003 |
At the University of Paris-1 (France), lectures of geography in first year exploit the SoDa Service to illustrate the course of the sun in the sky and the climatology of the solar radiation in Europe.
#2 | Radiation | HC | Horticulture | Nov. 2002 |
User: Gertus De Sauvage, engineer in his own company Sauvage Innovatie in The Netherlands
He is a consultant in horticulture. He wrote that the SoDa Service provides valuable information on radiation that should have application in greenhouses.
#1 | Radiation | several services | Synthesis of landscape in thermal infrared images | Jan. 2002 |
User: Thierry Poglio, of company Alcatel Space Industries
He used several services of the SoDa Service to set up his software performing synthesis of landscape in thermal infrared. He was able to check the part relating to the downwelling radiation, short- and longwave.
Poglio T., Savaria E., Wald L., 2002. Specifications and conceptual architecture of a thermal infrared simulator of landscapes. In Proceedings of the Colloquium SPIE (EUROPTO) "Sensors, Systems, and Next Generation Satellites VII" (CD-ROM), Toulouse, France, 17-21 September 2001, pp. 488-497.