3TIER Solar Time-series

Designed for: Developer & Engineer/Consultant

For pricing and purchase details:

A Long-Term, High Resolution Solar Record

Primary Uses

Integrating scientific data into internal analysis tools and software
Community-scale solar prospecting
Portfolio site comparison
Initial project feasibility
Comparing irradiance with load profile or spot price

Discover a site's solar resource intensity and variability with over a decade of hourly irradiance data, available for nearly any location worldwide.

IMPROVE ACCURACY

Based on proven science and over a decade of visible satellite imagery, our time-series has been rigorously validated and offers a complete 11 to 13 year data file of hour-by-hour values for GHI (Global Horizontal Irradiance), DNI (Direct Normal Irradiance), and DIF (Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance) at a horizontal resolution of roughly 3 kilometers.

INTEGRATE WITH EXISTING WORKFLOWS

Provided as a CSV data file, 3TIER's Solar Time-series ensures easy data upload to the software of your choice, facilitating more comprehensive analysis of the solar resources at your site, and ultimately a deeper understanding of your site's viability. Now you have all the resource information you need to accurately determine the production potential and expected resource performance for residential or light commercial solar installations and can facilitate additional assessment for large-scale projects.

GLOBALLY CONSISTENT

The Solar Time-series is based on a global solar dataset developed using a uniform methodology. When you are comparing multiple locations, now you know that the information you are using was calculated by the same exact scientific techniques. With more reliable point-to-point comparisons you have a clear picture of the risks for every potential site in your portfolio.

Technical Overview

Product Highlights

Global coverage
Spatial resolution of 2 arc minutes (approximately 3 km)
Based on over a decade of satellite data with continual updates
Founded on in-house research and the published work of Dr. Richard Perez of SUNY Albany
Validated and developed using widely recognized datasets worldwide

Features Comparison

	3TIER Solar Time-series	FullView Solar Site CVA	FullView Solar Site Resource Assessment
Product Features
Monthly variation of Irradiance		X
Diurnal variation of Irradiance		X
Irradiance histograms for GHI, DNI, DIF		X
Monthly variation of Irradiance (with MOS correction)			X
Diurnal variation of Irradiance (with MOS correction)			X
Irradiance histograms for GHI, DNI, DIF (with MOS correction)			X
Monthly temperature and wind speed variability (min, mean, max)		X	X
Diurnal temperature and wind speed variability and 12x24 table of hourly means		X	X
Time-series for solar GHI, DNI, DIF	X	X
Time-series for solar GHI, DNI, DIF with MOS correction			X
Time-series for 10 meter wind speed and 2 meter temperature (length dependent on region of purchase)		X
Time-series for wind speed and temperature based on 4.5 km NWP model run			X
Validation Report on the MOS-corrected irradiance time-series compared to observations			X

Methodology

3TIER produced the first global solar irradiance map and time-series dataset at roughly three times the resolution of previous US solar datasets and at thirty times the resolution of global datasets available from NASA. Based on over a decade of satellite imagery and cutting-edge technology, our uniform methodology is supported by a large scientific and research community and results in a consistent map and dataset, enabling more accurate point-to-point comparisons.

The dataset is based on actual, half-hourly, high-resolution visible satellite imagery observations via the broadband visible wavelength channel at a 2 arc minute resolution. These data have been processed to hourly GHI, DNI, and DIF values. 3TIER processes the satellite images based on a combination of in-house research and algorithms published in peer- reviewed scientific literature. These algorithms contain parameters and coefficients that are based on empirical fits to observational data. The specific satellites and length of time varies slightly by region due to differences in the availability of data from region to region. See the chart below for more details.

Regions	Satellites	Temporal Coverage
Western Hemisphere	GOES 8 - 13	13 years (January 1997 - May 2010)
South Asia and Middle East	Meteosat 5, Meteosat 7	11 years (January 1999 – February 2010)
East Asia and Oceania	GMS 5, GOES 9, AMTSAT	11 years (December 1999 – March 2010)
Europe and Africa	Meteosat 7, Meteosat 9	11 years (July 1998 – March 2010)