A state of art review on estimation of solar radiation with various models

Solar radiation is free, and very useful input for most sectors such as heat, health, tourism, agriculture, and energy production, and it plays a critical role in the sustainability of biological, and chemical processes in nature. In this framework, the knowledge of solar radiation data or estimating it as accurately as possible is vital to get the maximum benefit from the sun. From this point of view, many sectors have revised their future investments/plans to enhance their profit margins for sustainable development according to the knowledge/estimation of solar radiation. This case has noteworthy attracted the attention of researchers for the estimation of solar radiation with low errors. Accordingly, it is noticed that various types of models have been continuously developed in the literature. The present review paper has mainly centered on the solar radiation works estimated by the empirical models, time series, artificial intelligence algorithms, and hybrid models. In general, these models have needed the atmospheric, geographic, climatic, and historical solar radiation data of a given region for the estimation of solar radiation. It is seen from the literature review that each model has its advantages and disadvantages in the estimation of solar radiation, and a model that gives the best results for one region may give the worst results for the other region. Furthermore, it is noticed that an input parameter that strongly improves the performance success of the models for a region may worsen the performance success of another region. In this direction, the estimation of solar radiation has been separately detailed in terms of empirical models, time series, artificial intelligence algorithms, and hybrid algorithms. Accordingly, the research gaps, challenges, and future directions for the estimation of solar radiation have been drawn in the present study. In the results, it is well-observed that the hybrid models have exhibited more accurate and reliable results in most studies due to their ability to merge between different models for the benefit of the advantages of each model, but the empirical models have come to the fore in terms of ease of use, and low computational costs.