Time-Series Regression Model for Prediction of Mean Daily Global Solar Radiation in Al-Ain, UAE

The availability of short-term forecast weather model for a particular country or region is essential for operation planning of energy systems. This paper presents the first step by a group of researchers at UAE University to establish a weather model for the UAE using the weather data for at least 10 years and employing various models such as classical empirical models, artificial neural network (ANN) models, and time-series regression models with autoregressive integrated moving-average (ARIMA). This work uses time-series regression with ARIMA modeling to establish a model for the mean daily and monthly global solar radiation (GSR) for the city of Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates. Time-series analysis of solar radiation has shown to yield accurate average long-term prediction performance of solar radiation in Al-Ain. The model was built using data for 10 years (1995–2004) and was validated using data of three years (2005–2007), yielding deterministic coefficients (2) of 92.6% and 99.98% for mean daily and monthly GSR data, respectively. The low corresponding values of mean bias error (MBE), mean absolute bias error (MABE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), and root-mean-square error (RMSE) confirm the adequacy of the obtained model for long-term prediction of GSR data in Al-Ain, UAE.