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This paper presents an overview of actual solar radiation data measurements in Ghardaïa site (32.360 N, 3.810 W, 450 m above MSL). Global solar radiation and surface temperatures were measured and analyzed for one complete year from 1 January-31December 2005. The data thus recorded are compared with corresponding data of the 22-year average of NASA's surface meteorology and solar energy-model. Hourly, daily and monthly solar radiation was made from five-minute recorded by EKO Pyranometer. The highest measured daily and monthly mean solar radiation was found to be 369 and 326 (W/m2), and the highest five minute averaged solar radiation values up to 1268 (W/m2) were observed in the summer season from May to September, and the yearly average daily energy input was 21.83 (MJ/m2/day). Besides the global solar radiation, the daily and monthly average temperature variations are discussed. The collected data indicate that Ghardaïa has a strong potential for solar energy applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In this study, 11 empirical models are developed correlating the monthly mean daily global solar radiation on a horizontal surface with monthly mean sunshine records and air temperature data for six Algerian cities (Algiers, Oran, Batna, Ghardaia, Bechar, and Tamanrasset). In order to indicate their performance, seven statistical parameters were introduced; coefficient of determination (R 2), mean percent error (MPE), mean absolute percent error (MAPE), mean bias error (MBE), mean absolute bias error (MABE), and root mean square error (RMSE). The results obtained in this study confirm the previous studies, which have indicated that the sunshine based models are generally more accurate than air temperature based models. According to the results, the best performances are obtained by the cubic and the quadratic regression models for the six Algerian stations. Moreover, these two regression models can be used for the proposed generalized models for predicting the monthly mean global solar radiation in other Algerian locations in the absence of the measured solar radiation data. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]