[Medium] How does the annual irradiance differ year-to-year in Mendrisio?

[kandersolar]

Long-term irradiance is freely available from PVGIS and can easily be retrieved using the pvlib.iotools.get_pvgis_hourly function. PVGIS offers irradiance databases for Europe and North America.

Note
This project should be done in your local python editor, as it is difficult to read local files using Google Colab.

Method
For Mendrisio (or substitute a location of your choosing), retrieve ERA5 reanalysis data for the period 2005-2020 and investigate the interannual variability. For example, generate a CDF of annual insolation and determine the mean, median, and 95th percentiles.

Follow-up questions

• What is the reduction in insolation for the lowest year compared to the average year? These comparisons are often used to inform financial risk calculations for a PV project.
• How does the interannual variability compare to the sites reported by solargis?