Assessing the Performance of the Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar Applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted Surfaces (FARMS-NIT): Preprint

This study evaluates the performance of a new radiative transfer model, Fast All-sky Radiation Model for Solar Applications with Narrowband Irradiances on Tilted surfaces (FARMS-NIT), that efficiently computes spectral irradiances on inclined photovoltaic panels. FARMS-NIT numerically solves the spatial distribution of solar radiation in 2,002 wavelength bands and thereby accurately provides plane-of-array (POA) irradiances by integrating radiances over inclined surfaces. The FARMS-NIT for clear- and cloudy-sky conditions are used to compute POA irradiances for Typical Meteorological Year 3 sites and compared with the simulation by TMYSPEC. Our results indicate that FARMS-NIT leads to approximately 5% greater spectral irradiances compared to TMYSPEC. The difference in POA irradiance with a latitude tilt angle is slightly larger than global horizontal irradiance.