Analyzing of Global Solar Radiation over Baghdad

Solar radiation in Baghdad City was investigated over a span of one year at the Renewable Energy and Environment Research Center (REERC) in Baghdad city to comply with the increasing demand of the renewable energy sources and the wide use of their applications. In this study, the analyzing of Global Solar Radiation (GSR) data measured on a horizontal surface was done. The data collected and presented in this work were based on the hourly and the daily values. The Results found that the total of daily average GSR incident on a horizontal surface reached to about 194 MJ/m2, distributed on the months from January to December. The results also showed that the maximum radiation is received in July (23.5 MJ/m2) and the minimum radiation is received in December (7.5 MJ/m2). Calculations of clearness index values were found to be in the range of 0.43-0.57 indicating that most of the months exceed the rates of 50 %, which refers to a clear and sunny weather.