Cooperative Networks for Renewable Resource Measurements Solar Energy Resource Data

The Cooperative Network for Renewable Resource Measurements (CONFRRM) was an effort between NREL and other agencies to conduct long-term solar radiation and wind measurements at locations throughout the United States.

CONFRRM provides high-quality data for determining site-specific resources as well as data for the validation and testing of models to predict available resources based on meteorological or satellite data. The CONFRRM network provided additional geographic coverage to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Integrated Surface Irradiance Study network.

Data Files

Access CONFRRM data files for the locations listed below. By accessing these files, you agree to abide by the NREL data disclaimer.

Florida Solar Energy Center

Latitude: 28.39° north
Longitude: 80.76° west
Elevation: 18.1 meters
Time zone: -5

Instruments are located on top of an office building 9.1 m above ground level.

1998
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
2001
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Bethune-Cookman College

Latitude: 29.18° north
Longitude: 81.02° west
Elevation: 20 meters
Time zone: -5

2002
April data
April report
May data
May report
June data
June report
July data
July report
August data
August report
September data
September report
October data
October report
November data
November report
December data
December report

Savannah State College

Latitude: 32.03° north
Longitude: 81.07° west
Elevation: 11 meters
Time zone: -5

Savannah State College

Latitude: 33.50° north
Longitude: 90.33° west
Elevation: 52 meters
Time zone: -6

Southwest Technology Development Institute

Latitude: 32.27° north
Longitude: 106.74° west
Elevation: 1200.9 meters
Time zone: -7

Located on the campus of New Mexico State University.

2000
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Elizabeth City State University

Latitude: 36.28° north
Longitude: 176.22° west
Elevation: 26 meters
Time zone: -5

The University of Texas at Austin

Latitude: 30.29° north
Longitude: 97.74° west
Elevation: 21 meters
Time zone: -6

Solar radiation data and plots for 15 sites in Texas can be found on the University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory Texas Solar Radiation Database. See the topographic map of this site. This site began operating at 14:30 CST (20:30 GMT) on April 1, 1997.

1997
January
February
March
2000
January
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

West Texas A&M University

Latitude: 34.99° north
Longitude: 101.90° west
Elevation: 1066.8 meters
Time zone: -6

Solar radiation data and plots for 15 sites in Texas can be found on the University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory Texas Solar Radiation Database. See the topographic map of this site. This site began operating at 20:50 CST on June 26, 1997 (2:50 GMT on June 27, 1997).

1997
January
February
March
April
May
2000
May
June
July
October
August
September
November
December

University of Texas Pan American

Latitude: 26.20° north
Longitude: 98.22° west
Elevation: 30 meters
Time zone: -6

Solar radiation data and plots for 15 sites in Texas can be found on the University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory Texas Solar Radiation Database. See the topographic map of this site. This site began operating at 14:45 CST (20:45 GMT) on April 1, 1997.

1997
January
February
March
2000
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

University of Texas at El Paso

Latitude: 31.80° north
Longitude: 106.40° west
Elevation: 1219 meters
Time zone: -7

Solar radiation data and plots for 15 sites in Texas can be found on the University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory Texas Solar Radiation Database. See the topographic map of this site. This site began operating at 14:20 MST (27:20 GMT) on July 17, 1997.

1997
January
February
March
April
May
June
2000
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center

Latitude: 29.56° north
Longitude: 95.12° west
Elevation: 33 meters
Time zone: -6

Solar radiation data and plots for 15 sites in Texas can be found on the University of Texas Solar Energy Laboratory Texas Solar Radiation Database. See the topographic map of this site. This site began operating at 13:15 CST (19:15 GMT) on August 6, 1997.

1997
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
2000
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Bluefield State College

Latitude: 37.27° north
Longitude: 81.24° west
Elevation: 803 meters
Time zone: -5

2008
August data
August report
September data
September report
October data
October report
November data
November report
December data
December report
2009
January data
January report
February data
February report
March data
March report
April data
April report
May data
May report
June data
June report
July data
July report

Prior to Jan. 1, 1996, these five CONFRRM sites together with South Caroline State College in Orangeburg, South Carolina, made up the Historically Black Colleges and Universities Solar Radiation Monitoring Network, located in the Southeastern United States:

  • Daytona Beach, Florida
  • Savannah, Georgia
  • Itta Bena, Mississippi
  • Elizabeth City, North Carolina
  • Bluefield, West Virginia.

Data File Description

Solar data elements measured and reported by the CONFRRM sites include global horizontal irradiance, direct normal irradiance, diffuse horizontal irradiance, and global horizontal irradiance measured with a LI-COR pyranometer. Meteorological data include air temperature, relative humidity, pressure, wind speed, wind direction, and peak wind speed. Data logger temperature and battery voltage may also be reported. Some sites measure only two of the three broadband solar components (global horizontal, direct normal, and diffuse horizontal irradiance), while others include several meteorological measurements as well as the solar measurements.

Table 1 lists all fields that may be found in a CONFRRM data file and indicates the format for each field. Sites that include this field in their data files are also indicated in the table. For a list of measurements made at each site, and their order in the data record, see Table 2.

Data File Format

The format of the data files is comma delimited ASCII, each file containing one calendar month of quality-assessed data. Data quality assessment is performed on the broadband solar radiometric data using SERI_QC, which assigns data quality flags to every solar radiation component at every point in the data file. Flags assigned to other data indicate that the measurement passed or failed minimum/maximum tests or, in the case of a blank flag field, that no data quality tests were performed.

The following is an example of a CONFRRM solar radiation data file from Elizabeth City State University:

1997,8,1,12,0,781.21,14,821.77,15,53.02,15,27.50,01,38.88,01,30.38,01
1997,8,1,12,5,779.49,14,818.92,15,52.46,15,27.41,01,39.68,01,30.50,01
1997,8,1,12,10,779.38,14,816.37,15,52.51,15,27.24,01,41.16,01,30.48,01
1997,8,1,12,15,778.82,14,816.09,15,52.65,15,27.25,01,42.16,01,30.55,01
1997,8,1,12,20,778.53,10,814.33,11,52.61,11,26.98,01,43.12,01,30.45,01
1997,8,1,12,25,778.87,10,814.85,11,52.43,11,26.88,01,42.90,01,30.46,01
1997,8,1,12,30,778.60,14,816.57,15,53.50,15,27.00,01,42.98,01,30.36,01
1997,8,1,12,35,776.30,10,814.61,11,53.45,11,27.13,01,42.82,01,30.31,01

Each line, or record, represents five minutes, the data within each record being 5-minute averages. According to Table 2, the first field is the four-digit year, 1997. The next field represents the month, in this case, August. Next comes the day of the month, then the hour of the day, 0-23; then the minute, 0-59. Following these first five fields are the actual measured data. From Table 2, we see that in the first line the global horizontal irradiance was 781.21 W/m2 and was given a flag 14 by SERI_QC.


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