2010 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium

An Evaluation Data of Solar Irradiation and Dry

Bulb Temperature at Subang under Malaysian
Climate
M.Z. Hussin#1, M.H.A. Hamid#2, Z.M. Zain#3, R.A. Rahman*4
#
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Mara
40450 Shah Alam Selangor Darul Ehsan.
1
mat_pran@yahoo.com
2
mrhaniffhamid@yahoo.com
*
Photovoltaic Monitoring Centre (PVMC), Universiti Teknologi Mara
40450 Shah Alam Selangor Darul Ehsan

Abstracts Solar irradiation and the temperature played a temperature throughout the year, with the mean temperature in
major role in the PV designing system. This factor differs with the lowlands ranging between 26 C and 28C. It has a
the latitude, geographic and time of day due to the various sun tropical climate with annual southwest (from April to
positions.This paper presents an average of solar irradiation over October) and northeast (from October to February)
10 years data for the Subang area with respect to the complete monsoons[2]. A photovoltaic (PV) system should be installed
set data of daily global solar radiation that monitored by the to maximise the solar contribution to a particular load.
Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) from year 1993 to
2002.In this study, the data were analysed to understand the
Optimum PV inclination and orientation depends on local
pattern of hourly solar irradiance and also to recommend the climate, load consumption temporal profile and latitude.
appropriate value of daily solar irradiation for the designing of Generally, a surface with tilt angle equal to the latitude of a
PV system in Malaysia region especially for Subang and Klang location receives maximum insolation [3].The differences due
Valley. The highest sum of 24 hours average solar irradiation per to weather conditions in are more important. This paper
year was 4.72 kWh m-2 in 1998 as well as temperature 28.5 C discussed about the significant of the understanding solar
and the annually average solar irradiations for Subang were irradiance pattern and the long term monitoring data which
collected from 3.91 kWh m-2 to 4.30 kWh m-2 during 10 years highly contributed to the optimum design of PV system in
period. Also, the recommended daily solar irradiation in
Malaysian region.
Malaysian climate is 4.39 kWh m-2, 133.0 kWh m-2 for monthly
and the standard value for annual is 1596.5 kWh m-2 .The II. SOLAR IRRADIATION IN SUBANG
standard deviation for daily solar irradiation is 0.29.
Subang Jaya is geographically located at latitude (3.0825
degrees) 3 07 North of the Equator and longitude (101.5879
Keywords Solar Irradiation, Dry Bulk, Temperature,
Photovoltaic.
degrees) 101 35' East of the Prime Meridian on the Map of
Kuala Lumpur and the elevation of the city is at 17.0 meters
I. INTRODUCTION height above mean daily sea level pressure (M.S.L). The data
Malaysia is one of the country that are still use fossil fuels of solar radiation and the temperature of Subang Jaya is the
as main source of energy today but also aware of the main station and managed by the Malaysian Meteorological
consequences of relying on this energy source for our natural Service's personnel. Hourly solar radiation is obtained from
environment. The climate of Malaysia is tropical and humid.
the readings of the solarimeter and the hourly air temperature
So, its suitable to use safer alternative energy sources such as
solar, wind, water and so on. Since there is more concern on is measured with dry bulb thermometer [4].
energy conservation and environmental protection, the global
priority has been increasingly addressed on the solar energy.
Solar energy as a clean energy source and safer alternative
renewable energy is abundant in Malaysia. The weather
condition in Malaysia is very suitable for photovoltaic
implementation. This is because the weather condition is
almost predictable and the availability of sunlight for more
than 10 h daily. As it is possible to have about 6 h of direct
sunlight with irradiation of between 800 W/m2 and 1000
W/m2, it is already very good to consider for the usage of
photovoltaic [1].This country experiences relatively uniform

978-1-4244-7240-6/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE 55

2010 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium
TABLE 1
AVERAGE HOURLY VALUES OF SOLAR IRRADIANCE, KW M-2
-1
YEAR OBTAIN 10 YEARS DATA FOR SUBANG
Hour 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
1 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
2 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
3 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
4 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
5 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
6 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
7 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02
8 0.15 0.15 0.18 0.17 0.13 0.14 0.14 0.18 0.17 0.16
9 0.32 0.31 0.37 0.36 0.32 0.32 0.32 0.37 0.35 0.35
10 0.47 0.46 0.54 0.52 0.48 0.49 0.49 0.54 0.51 0.52
11 0.56 0.56 0.65 0.63 0.61 0.63 0.61 0.64 0.62 0.63
12 0.60 0.58 0.68 0.68 0.66 0.69 0.66 0.67 0.66 0.67
Fig.1 Malaysian Meteorological station
13 0.57 0.55 0.65 0.65 0.65 0.67 0.65 0.64 0.63 0.62
14 0.48 0.47 0.56 0.57 0.56 0.61 0.56 0.55 0.55 0.52
III. MATERIALS AND METHODS 15 0.36 0.37 0.44 0.44 0.45 0.49 0.44 0.43 0.42 0.40
16 0.23 0.24 0.29 0.30 0.31 0.36 0.31 0.29 0.30 0.26

A. Data Observations 17 0.12 0.12 0.16 0.17 0.17 0.21 0.19 0.16 0.16 0.13
18 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.07 0.08 0.08 0.05 0.04 0.03
In the present study, the dataset of monthly average daily 19 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

global radiation on a horizontal surface from Malaysian 20

21
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
Meteorological Department (MMD) weather stations in 22 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Subang between 1993 and 2002 was used to estimate hourly 23 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
24 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
and annually values. The meteorological data was taken in Yearly average daily solar
interval for every 1 hour. From the raw data, the maximum irradiation (kWh/m/day) 3.91 3.86 4.59 4.57 4.44 4.72 4.46 4.54 4.46 4.30

and minimum hourly values per year were calculated .From Max. daily solar
irradiance (kW/m/day) 0.60 0.58 0.68 0.68 0.66 0.69 0.66 0.67 0.66 0.67
hourly data and daily data distribution were made for the solar Min. daily solar

radiation and temperature data to analyse the average solar irradiance (kW/m/day) 0.03 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.02

radiation data for Subang were produced by using the daily

global solar radiation recorded at Subang station. The trend TABLE 2
and pattern analysis of both temperature and solar radiation AVERAGE HOURLY DRY TEMPERATURE, C OBTAINED DURING
10 YEARS PERIOD FOR SUBANG
has been carried out by analyzing both the temperature and
solar radiation data for Malaysia over the last one decade Hour 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
1 25.0 25.2 25.5 25.5 25.6 26.4 25.5 25.6 25.8 25.9
(1993-2002).Generation of average solar radiation per year is 2 24.8 24.9 25.3 25.2 25.3 26.1 25.2 25.4 25.6 25.7
the real data that were recorded by Subang MMD and had 3 24.6 24.7 25.1 25.0 25.1 25.9 25.0 25.2 25.3 25.4
4 24.4 24.6 24.9 24.8 25.0 25.7 24.8 25.0 25.1 25.2
chosen solar data from 1993 until 2002.However, the 5 24.2 24.4 24.7 24.7 24.8 25.5 24.6 24.8 25.0 25.1
observation average solar radiation and temperature was 6 24.1 24.3 24.6 24.6 24.8 25.4 24.5 24.7 24.8 24.9

developed using available solar data in MMD weather station 7 24.3 24.5 24.8 24.8 25.0 25.6 24.6 24.8 25.0 25.1
8 25.7 25.8 26.1 26.2 26.4 27.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.7
located in Subang. 9 27.7 27.7 28.0 28.0 28.4 28.8 27.8 28.0 28.0 28.8
10 29.3 29.3 29.5 29.5 29.9 30.2 29.4 29.6 29.5 30.3

IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION 11 30.4 30.4 30.5 30.5 31.0 31.3 30.4 30.7 30.6 31.4
12 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.2 31.7 32.0 31.1 31.4 31.4 32.1
Generally, the data was taken at Subang. It can be seen that 13 31.3 31.5 31.5 31.5 32.0 32.5 31.4 31.7 31.7 32.5

the peak distribution of average hourly solar irradiance as well 14 31.3 31.3 31.5 31.6 31.9 32.5 31.2 31.5 31.8 32.3
15 30.8 30.9 30.9 31.0 31.4 32.1 30.6 31.1 31.3 31.6
as temperatures are higher from 7am until 1pm and lower 16 30.0 30.1 30.1 30.2 30.4 31.4 30.0 30.4 30.6 30.7
from 2pm until 7pm (morning to late evening). The hourly 17 29.1 29.1 29.3 29.4 29.4 30.4 29.3 29.5 29.8 29.9
18 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 28.4 29.5 28.5 28.6 28.9 29.0
average of solar irradiance for Subang during 1993 to 2002 19 27.3 27.4 27.6 27.7 27.7 28.5 27.6 27.7 28.1 28.1
periods was compared in table 1. Clearly, the highest hourly 20 26.7 26.9 27.1 27.2 27.2 28.0 27.0 27.2 27.5 27.6

average solar radiance among 10 years is 1998 with 0.69 kW 21 26.3 26.5 26.7 26.8 26.9 27.6 26.6 26.8 27.1 27.1
22 25.9 26.1 26.4 26.4 26.6 27.2 26.3 26.4 26.7 26.8
m-2 day-1 was recorded and the lowest is 0.02 kW m-2 day-1 in 23 25.6 25.8 26.1 26.1 26.3 26.9 26.0 26.1 26.4 26.5
the same year. Within 10 year periods data was taken, it can 24 25.3 25.5 25.8 25.8 25.9 26.7 25.7 25.9 26.1 26.2

be founded that the average values are approximately around Yearly average daily
dry bulb temp. C 27.2 27.3 27.6 27.6 27.8 28.5 27.5 27.7 27.8 28.1
4.39 kWh m-2 yr-1 throughout the periods. Max. average daily

In table 2, it can be said that the minimum value of dry bulb dry bulb temp. C 31.3 31.5 31.5 31.6 32.0 32.5 31.4 31.7 31.8 32.5
Min. average daily
temperature was noted usually at 6pm during the dawn time. dry bulb temp. C 24.1 24.3 24.6 24.6 24.8 25.4 24.5 24.7 24.8 24.9

Instead, the maximum values of dry bulb temperature fall at

period between 1pm to 2pm in a day. Fig. 2 below describes the pattern of the average hourly
solar irradiance for the 10 years period. Every hours indicates
that the increment of solar irradiance until 12pm and then
slightly drop after 1pm until 7pm. At 12pm, the solar
irradiance reaches the maximum values.

56
2010 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium
Fig. 2 The pattern of hourly average solar irradiance during 10 years
Fig. 3 The pattern of hourly average dry bulk temperature during 10 years
Fig. 3 above shows that the pattern temperature distribution
during 7am to 1pm, the rate of dry temperature for 24 hours
reach the higher point (exceed 25 C) and then smoothly fall
around 2 pm until the midnight, which result in the observed
peak. Otherwise, the minimum hourly average temperature
was recorded at 24.1 C (1993, 6am). It can be seen that the
range of temperature between 25 C and 30 C is occurred due
the hot climate and high humidity condition.
57
Fig. 4 The yearly average daily solar irradiation and the average dry bulb
temperature per year from 1993 to 2002(10 years)
Fig. 4 shows the total solar irradiation and the average dry
temperature per year from 1993 to 2002. It can be seen that
the temperature graph increased gradually throughout the 10
years period. In year 1998, 28.5C was recorded as the
maximum average temperature per year. This issue occurred
due to the effects of the increasing global warmth caused by
the El Nio phenomenon. The large-scale climate
phenomenon El Nio can contribute to average warmth in
global temperature (Fig. 5 below), as was the case with the
extremely strong 1997/1998 episode [6]. Instead of the
changing in temperature, the Klang Valley area also suffered
in water shortage during that year. There is an overall
increasing trend of the dry temperature for Subangs area and
theres no indication of a cycle period. Hence, it can be said as
upward trend. The trend lines of the total amount solar
radiation per year is quite fluctuate rather than the average
temperature graph. It can be shown that among 10 years the
highest receives solar irradiation in year 1998. The highest
amount of total average solar irradiation receive per year was
noted in year 1998 with 4.72 kWh m-. The minimum is 3.86
kWh m-2 in year 1994. In previous studies by Ayu Wazira
Azhari (2006), the average solar radiations receive a year in
Malaysia is about 4.96 kWh m-2. Other studies by
Kamaruzzaman and Mohd Yusof (1992) indicate almost the
same results but there is a slight increase in the minimum
value from 3.375 kWh m-2 in 1992 to 4.21 kWh m-2 in 2006
[7]. As expected, based on statement above, the yearly
average daily solar radiation shows that there is a significant
relation solar radiation intensity between the result during 10
years is quite similar with the previous studies have been
made.
2010 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium

Fig. 5 Global annual temperature anomaly percentiles for 2005 based on a

gamma distribution for the 1961-1990 base periods Fig. 9 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1996

Fig. 6 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1993 Fig. 10 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1997

Fig. 7 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1994 Fig. 11 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1998

Fig. 8 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1995

Fig. 12 Monthly solar irradiation in year 1999

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2010 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium

Fig. 13 Monthly solar irradiation in year 2000 Fig. 17 Average Solar Contour Image for Subang (1998-2002)

TABLE 5
THE OPTIMUM OF AVERAGE SOLAR IRRADIATION AND
STANDARD DEVIATION FOR SUBANG AND KLANG VALLEY AREA

Year Daily(kWh) Monthly(kWh) Annually(kWh)

1993 3.91 118.7 1424.7
1994 3.86 115.4 1384.6
1995 4.59 139.6 1674.7
1996 4.57 138.2 1658.0
1997 4.44 135.0 1620.6
1998 4.72 143.4 1721.2
1999 4.46 135.5 1626.1
Fig. 14 Monthly solar irradiation in year 2001 2000 4.54 138.1 1657.4
2001 4.46 135.7 1628.2
2002 4.30 130.8 1569.9
Average 4.39 133.0 1596.5
Max. 4.72 143.4 1721.2
Min. 3.86 115.4 1384.6
Std Dev 0.29 9.1 108.9

Fig. 16 and 17 describes the average solar irradiation in

Fig. 15 Monthly solar irradiation in year 2002
Fig. 16 Average Solar Contour Image for Subang (1993-1997)
Subang by the contour plot. The intensity of solar irradiation
is the highest in February, March and April at around 12 noon.
The area of high intensity solar irradiation for 1998 to 2002 is
wider than area high intensity in 1993 to 1997. It indicates that
Subang receiving more solar irradiation in 1998 to 2002.To
illustrate the differences distribution of solar irradiation, the
monthly graph was demonstrated clearly in Fig.6 to 15 for the
different 10 years period.
For Table 5, it represents the optimum average of solar
irradiation and the standard deviation during 10 years period.
Based on the result, these values can be used as a guideline for
designing PV system and would be the best recommendation
for designer to determine the tilt angle during installation
modules was conducted.
Generally, these parameters are covered for horizontal
surface only and the value may change slightly when the
vertical surface orientation was conducted. The optimum
recommended for average daily solar irradiation, monthly and
annually was 4.39 kWh, 133.0 kWh and 1596.5 kWh
respectively

59
2010 IEEE Control and System Graduate Research Colloquium
V. CONCLUSIONS
The climate or weather conditions may fluctuate from year
by year. Based on a set of 10 years observation data, the
significant result achieved would contribute to the
understanding of the behaviour or pattern of average data by
year and the highest in year 1998 with 4.72 kWh m-2 yr-1 as
well as the dry temperature around 28.5 C. Obviously, the
best optimum value recommended for Subang and Klang
Valley region are 4.39 kWh for daily, 133.0 kWh for monthly
and 1596.5 kWh for annually. The standard deviation for daily
solar irradiation is 0.29 .Also, it will be useful for the
designing the PV system at Malaysian region especially for
Subang and Klang Valley. High solar irradiation, constantly
high temperature and humid characterize the Subang as well
as Malaysian climate. From the acquired data on the variation
of solar irradiation, a recommendation can be made on the
usage of photovoltaic applications in Malaysia and that can
serve as guideline for future users who will be interested to
use it and continue the research.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The researches would like to thank the Malaysian
Meteorological Service Department for providing the data for
the research.

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