COMPARATIVE STUDY OF INSOLATION LEVELS OF TWENTY ONE LOCATIONS USING TEMPERATURE AND SUNSHINE MODEL FOR SUSTAINABLE APPLICATION OF PHOTOVOLTAIC TECHNOLOGY IN NIGERIA.

Abdulsalam, D.*, Idris, U.D., Zubairu, I.K. and Faki, A.I.

With rapid population growth and increase in industrial activities, more energy (usually fossil fuel generated) is consumed resulting in increased environmental pollution and economic difficulties. Therefore, the need for utilizing renewable energy resources emerged globally. Thus, Nigeria receives 5.081 x 10¹²kWh of energy per day from the sun on the average of 5.5kWh/m²/day, and it is possible to generate 1850 x 10³ GWh of solar electricity per year if SPV systems were used to cover 1% of Nigeria’s land area of 923,773km². This is over one hundred times the current grid electricity consumption level in the country. Therefore, twenty one (21) locations represent the sample size comprising three (3) major cities from each of the seven states situated between latitudes 8^o and 14^o North of the equator and between longitudes 3.5^o and 11^o East of meridian in Nigeria to make the study area. The long term averages of the Sunshine hours (hrs), Minimum/ maximum ambient temperature (^oC) and Monthly average daily global solar radiation on horizontal surface (kWh/m²/day) were collected from seven (7) locations for the estimations of other location lacking the data. Results show that, insolation values of the locations are the same within the range of 5.0257kWh/m²/day to11.5337 kWh/m²/day throughout the year. It is recommended that, the results be used in the design of all solar system, energy efficient buildings and agricultural system design and application.

Key words: Ambient temperature, Estimation, Insolation, Pv- technology, Sunshine hours.