An assessment of the solar climate of a tropical island having a complex topography

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An investigation of five meteorologically-distinct regions based on topography and wind directions is performed, to classify day-to-day variations of solar irradiances into physically-sensible regimes. Descriptive statistical tools which include standard deviation, coefficient of variation, quartiles, minimum, maximum, skewness, and kurtosis are utilized to measure the central tendency and variability of recorded global solar irradiance values for the regions of Barkly, Flacq, Plaine Sophie, Reduit, and Richelieu. Seasonal analysis is performed and reveals that the summer season witnesses on average, higher insolation values at all sites while the winter season reflects a relatively stable solar climate, characteristic of constant solar energy resource for efficient energy conversion. An inter-comparison study on annual scale indicates that the North-West regions of Barkly and Richelieu have inherently higher solar energy potentials with clear to lightly scattered sky cover for about 275 days with global solar irradiance above a threshold value of 300 W/m2• The annual average daily irradiance at Barkly and Richelieu are 371.8 W/m2and 374.2 W/m2, respectively, favoring the development of solar energy projects.