Book Description:
This book addresses the rapid developments in the new field of solar resource knowledge as a reflection of growing needs of management of renewable energy resources. The authors have structured the content of this work as a set of contributions from the research, international and commercial institutions. The chapters discuss the availability of new primary data, basic concepts of research trends and approaches developed for providing higher resolution data and value-added products in an operational mode. Based on the experience from commercial and aid-providing sphere, individual and more generic barriers have been identified and solutions for overcoming them are discussed. The approaches exploiting geographical information systems, integrating spatial data and methods, outline directions for decision-making and management of distributed energy systems, considering regional and time variability at various hierarchical scales. The final contributions point out that the recent developments gave an impetus for complementing the traditional applications of Earth observation data by renewable energy programs.

Table of Contents:
FOREWORD pp. i-x


PART I Solar Data Resources and Methods Presently Available pp. 1-2


Chapter 1 - Emerging Opportunities for Improved Solar Resource Information; pp. 3-10
(Richard Perez)

Chapter 2 - Use of Satellite Images to Produce Solar Radiation and Daylight Information: Experience From Three European Projects; pp. 11-27
(Dominique Dumortier)

Chapter 3 - Available Databases, Products and Services; pp. 29-41
(Lucien Wald)


PART II Current Research and Expected Products


Chapter 4 - Climate Statistics for Planning and Siting of Solar Electricity Systems: Typical Years; pp. 45-53
(Jan Remund)

Chapter 5 - Climate Statistics for Planning and Siting of Solar Energy Systems: Long-Term Variability of Solar Radiation Derived from Satellite Data; pp. 55-68
(Richard Meyer, Sina Lohmann, Christoph Schillings and Carsten Hoyer)

Chapter 6 - Monitoringof Photovoltaic Systems in Large Scale-The Proyect PVSAT-2; PP. 69-81
(Hans Georg Beyer, Elke Lorenz, Jethro Betcke, Anja Drewa, Detlev Heinemann, Corry de Keizer, Wilfried Van Sark, Sandra Feige, Stefan Bofinger, Martin Schneider, Gerd Heilscher,Sandra Stettler, Peter Toggweiler, Edo Wiemken And Wolfgang Heydenreich)

Chapter 7 - Forescasting of Solar Radiation; pp. 83-94
(Detlev Heinemann, Elke Lorenz and Marco Girodo)



PART III Role And Needs of the Energy Service Providers


Chapter 8 - Data and Derived Products Needed by Companies; pp. 97-101
(Daniel Mugnier)

Chapter 9 - Role and Needs of Energy Service Providers with Focus on Solar Energy Applications; pp. 103-109
(Gerd Heilscher, Martin Schneider and Stefan Bofinger)

Chapter 10 - The ESA-ENVISOLARProyect:Experience on The Comercial Use of Earth Observation Based Solar Surface Irradiance Measurements for Energy Business Purposes; pp. 111-124
(Marion Schroedter-Homscheidt, Catherine Delamare, Gerd Heilscher, Detlev Heinemann, Carsten Hoyer, Richard Meyer, Peter Toggweiler, Lucien Wald and Antine Zelenka)

Chapter 11 - The SWERA Proyect: Lessons Learned from Developing Countries; pp. 125-131
(Mark Radka and Tom Hamlin)


PART IV First Steps in Management of Distributed Energy
Structures


Chapter 12 - Geographical Aspects of Solar Electricity in Europe; pp. 135-159
(Marcel Suri, Ewan D. Dunlop, Thomas A. Hulk And Heinz A. Ossenbrink)

Chapter 13 - Grid Integration of Solar Energy and Optimizing the Energy Mix of Tomorrow; pp. 161-171
(Carsten Hoyer, Stefan Kronshage, Joachin Nitsch, Franz Trieb, Christoph Schillings and Wolfram Krewitt)



PART V Perspectives of Energy Issues in the Current Earth-
Observation Programs


Chapter 14 - Space Technology for Renewable Energies; pp. 175-180
(Pierre-Philippe Mathieu)

Chapter 15 - GMES and The Solar Energy Issue; pp. 181-190
(Marek Banaszkiewicz, Francesco Pignatelli And Allan Belward)


Sumary; pp. 191-196

Index pp. 197-205