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SOLEMI is aimed at decision makers of solar energy projects and atmospheric researchers, which need high quality solar irradiance data for designing solar energy systems and cloud climatologies.

• Products for solar energy decision makers:
   
• Spatial data to determine solar energy potentials and selecting suitable sites:

  High spatial resolution maps of irradiance sums can be used to determine the solar energy potential of a defined region. The following map shows the annual direct irradiance in Morocco for the year 1998:

  
  Direct irradiance Map of Morocco copyright © 2003 by DLR

  This data can further be used together with geographical information and economical data to determine e.g. levelised electricity costs for solar thermal power plants in this region. The result is a ranking of eligible sites, as shown in the following image. This analysis has been done with the tool STEPS.

  
  Ranking of eligible sites for a 200 MW solar thermal trough plant, solar only, copyright © 2003 by DLR

  This information can be used to find the best suitable location to plan a solar power project.

• Time series data to analyze a project location:

  An analysis of site for a solar energy project needs a long term time series of solar irradiance data, to be able to make reliable predictions on the performance of a solar power system. The following figure compares measured annual averages from Potsdam, Germany to the long term climatological average:

  
  Maximum deviation of annual irradiance from long term averages in Potsdam, copyright © 2002 Volker Quaschning

  A time series of at least 10 years is needed to reduce the error of the predicted incoming irradiance below 5%.

  To analyze a potential project site a time series of hourly data can be extracted from the data base for every location:

  

  The extracted data will be a quality checked homogenized long term time series which is the ideal bases for detailed economic evaluation of a proposed solar power project, which can be done e.g. with greenius.

• Scientific users:

  For scientific users SOLEMI will offer cloud and irradiance data with high spatial and temporal coverage and resolution.