Contribution to the study of the wind and solar radiation over Guadeloupe

Guadeloupean archipelago must reach energy autonomy in 2030 and include at least 50% of renewables in 2020, where wind and photovoltaics can play a significant role. Still, Guadeloupe gathers a lot of landscapes having great impact on wind and solar resource. Study of three 10-years database and one 5-year database locates a nocturnal radiative layer above the airport meteorological station, drastically limiting the wind potential there, and gives all the irradiation components (monthly sums) and therefore key parameters for photovoltaic energy yield. This paper also points out the underestimation of Linke turbidity coefficient in the airport station with Solar Radiation Database (SoDa), compared to ground-based determination, and calculates the value of this coefficient for three stations across Guadeloupe. All those parameters are discussed, as being of importance to make fair predictions of statistical relationships involving preliminary assessment and modeling of wind and solar energy systems. These results can then be used in neighboring countries, Guadeloupe having various meteorological conditions retrieved in Caribbean. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.