LAUSR

Renewable energy sources have been growing worldwide, and solar energy is a significant part of such sources. An essential step in planning studies, including the problem of optimal location and sizing of photovoltaic (PV) generators, is estimating how much energy the panels will generate over time. For that, two aspects must be considered: the stochastic nature of the input variables and the way to calculate the generator's output power. A brief literature review identified twelve approaches to determine the PV output power. Therefore, this article compares such methods through actual meteorological data and generated energy over one year by a solar power plant located in a specific site in Brazilian Northeast. As expected, models that consider the influence of ambient temperature on output power performed better than those that do not. How the energy generated by the PV panel is estimated can influence the economic viability of a project since oversizing the PV system entails unnecessary additional costs. Monte Carlo simulations are used to determine the energy generated by each model, based on the integration of instantaneous powers. According to our findings, considering the correlation between meteorological variables reduces the error in estimating the generated energy by PV panels.