the project
The principle objective of HELIOSAT-3 is
to support the solar energy community in its efforts for increasing the
efficiency and costeffectiveness of solar energy systems and improving
the acceptability of renewables.
A successful integration of solar energy into the
existing energy structure highly depends on a detailed knowledge of the
solar resource. HELIOSAT-3 will supply high-quality solar radiation
data gained from the exploitation of existing Earth observation
technologies and will take advantage of the enhanced capabilities of
the new Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites. The expected
quality represents a substantial improvement with respect to the
available methods and will better match the needs of companies and
other customers of the resulting products.
In particular, HELIOSAT-3 will provide
- solar irradiance data with high accuracy as well as a high spatial and time resolution for a large geographical coverage according to the needs of solar energy applications.
- additional solar-energy specific data (direct and spectral irradiance, angular distribution of diffuse irradiance, spatial structure of irradiance) according to the needs of end-users
The main components of HELIOSAT-3 are:
- Retrieval algorithms for the MSG-based estimation of major atmospheric parameters: clouds, water vapour, aerosols, and ozone.
- Physically based calculation schemes for solar irradiance and additional parameters relevant for solar energy.
- Implementation of an operational processing chain from MSG data to end-use oriented solar radiation data.
- Prototype applications assessing the economic benefit of the derived new or improved products for the solar energy sector.
The establishment of the methodology will be the basis of new
services to the growing solar energy industry, providing near-real-time
solar radiation data serving the specific needs of the customers. The
implementation of HELIOSAT-3 on a routine basis will serve the solar
energy with high quality solar irradiance amd atmospheric data.
Similarly, the climate community will be served by HELIOSAT-3 with data
appropriate to their special needs. The services will be implemented by
partners in HELIOSAT-3 in close relationship with European vendors of
information on solar radiation.
Prototype applications will assess the economic benefit of supplying
application-specific data. HELIOSAT-3 products will be distributed
amongst the solar energy industry and a workshop on the benefits of
HELIOSAT-3 will be held at the end of the project.
