Climatological Maps of Solar Energy in Greece from the Hellenic Network of Solar Energy

The Hellenic Network for Solar Energy is a network dedicated to provide information regarding the availability of solar energy in Greece with the purpose of supporting solar installations. The Network comprises the use of satellite products and calculations from radiative transfer and prognostic models. The results have been validated using a ground-based network of 14 stations, located in various areas of Greece that provide surface solar irradiance measurements. Cloud data derived from the Meteosat Second Generation satellites are used, along with radiative transfer models, to calculate the available solar energy. As a result, global horizontal and direct normal irradiances are calculated with a high spatial and temporal resolution (5 km and 15 min respectively) from 2002 and onwards. Based on data from the period 2002 to 2012, a climatology of the solar energy field in Greece, has been produced. Solar maps are provided, presenting the climatological annual amounts of global horizontal and direct normal irradiances, for the whole country as well as for each geographic region in particular. The maps are freely available at: http://atmosphere-upatras.gr/en/solarmaps.