MESoR - Management and exploitation of solar resource knowledge

CD-ROMKnowledge of the solar resource is essential for the planning and operation of solar energy systems. A number of data bases giving information on solar resources have been developed over the past years. The result is a fragmentation of services each having each own mechanism of access and all are giving different results due to different methods, input data and base years. The project MESoR, co-funded by the European Commission, reduces the associated uncertainty by setting up standard benchmarking rules and measures for comparing the data bases, user guidance to the application of resource data and unifying access to various data bases

MESoR - Management and exploitation of solar resorce knowledge

Knowledge of solar energy resource has been generated over the past years within several European and national projects. Large steps forward have been made for the benefit of research, renewable energy industry and the environment. Nevertheless, these multiple efforts have led to a fragmentation and uncoordinated access: different sources of information and solar radiationproducts are now available, but uncertainty about their quality remains. At the same time, communities of users lack common understanding how to exploit the developed knowledge. The project MESoR aims at removing the uncertainty and improving the management of the solar energy resource knowledge. The results of past and present large-scale initiatives in Europe, will be integrated, standardised and disseminated in a harmonised way to facilitate their effective exploitation by stakeholders. This coordination action will contribute to preparation of the future roadmap for R&D and strengthening the European position in the international field. The project includes activities in user guidance (benchmarking of models and data sets; handbook; best practices), unification of access to information (use of advanced information technologies; offering one-stop-access to several databases), connecting to other initiatives (INSPIRE of the EU, POWER of the NASA, SHC and PVPS of the IEA, GMES/GEO) and to related scientific communities (energy, meterology, geography, medicine, ecology), and dissemination (stakeholders involvement, training, future R&D, communication). To that purpose, a consortium has been assembled that gathers several partners having co-ordinated large international projects in the domain and other partners bringing the necessary expertise to the achievement of the objectives. The consortium provides a unique interface/ point of contact for the renewable energy community for retrieving data necessary to establish solar renewables as fully competitive energy option

Management and Exploitation of Solar Resource Knowledge

Knowledge of the solar energy resource is essential for the planning and operation of solar energy systems. In past years there has been substantial European and national funding to develop information systems on solar radiation data, leading to the situations that several data bases exist in parallel, developed by different approaches, various spatial and temporal coverages and resolutions including those exploiting satellite data. The user of these products may end up with different results for the same requested sites. To better guide the users, a benchmarking exercise is under preparation. A set of reference data has been collected and benchmarking measures and rules have been defined. The results of the benchmarking and the feedback from stakeholders will be integrated into a guide of best practices in the application of solar resource knowledge. Access to data has been quite fragmented. Each service has its own way of access to the data and delivery format. A new broker portal based on the experience of the project Soda aims to unify and ease the access to distributed data sources and applications providing solar resource information