A Change of Yearly Solar Radiation Energy Resources in Korea

Since the solar energy resource is the main input for sizing any solar photovoltaic system and solar thermal power system, it is essential to utilize the solar radiation data as a application and development of solar energy system increase. It will be necessary to understand and evaluate the insolation data. The Korea Institute of Energy Research(KIER) has begun collecting horizontal global insolation data since May, 1982 and direct normal insolation data since December 1992 at 16 different locations in Korea. Because of a poor reliability of existing data, KIER's new data will be extensively used by solar energy system users as well as by research institutes. From the results, the yearly averaged horizontal global insolation was turned out 3.60kWh//day and a significant difference of horizontal global insolation is observed between 1982~1990 and 1991~1999, 2000~2008 through 16 different cities in Korea.