Estimation of 5-min time-step data of tilted solar global irradiation using ANN (Artificial Neural Network) model

Converting measured horizontal global solar irradiance in tilted ones is a difficult task, particularly for a small time-step and for not-averaged data. Conventional methods (statistical, correlation, . . .) are not always efficient with time-step less than one hour; thus, we want to know if an ANN (Artificial Neural Network) is able to realize this conversion with a good accuracy when applied to 5-min solar radiation data of Bouzareah, Algeria. The ANN is developed and optimized using two years of solar data; the nRMSE (relative root means square error) is around 8% for the optimal configuration, which corresponds to a very good accuracy for such a short time-step. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.