Renewable Energy Vo]. 3. No. 8, pp. 919-922, 1993 096(~1481/93 $6.00+.

0(I
Printed in Great Britain. Pergamon Press Ltd

DATA BANK

Solar energy balance in Yamoussoukro

A . TOFIGHI*
ENSTP, D~pt Sci. Fond., B.P. 1083 Yamoussoukro, C6le d'lvoire

(Received 2 April 1993; accepted 23 April 1993)

A b s t r a e ~ T h e first analysis of meteorological conditions and solar energy balance was carried out in the
new capital of Ivory Coast (Yamoussoukro, 6'45'N and 5 21'W). Different parameters (temperature,
humidity, aerosols and solar radiation) were considered and discussed.

1. INTRODUCTION • solar radiation measurements (reliability and distribution

of instruments) ;
The Earth is permanently exposed to 1.8 × 10 ~ MW [1] solar • climatic data (aerosols, visibility, etc.) ;
radiation at the limits of its atmosphere. Tropical countries • choice and follow-up of the installations : and
receive the largest part of this clean and inexhaustible energy. • socioeconomic obstacles.
It is therefore very interesting to develop solar energy systems
in these regions. However. despite promises made by special- The interest of the present study is that it is the first analysis
ists about the future of renewable energy, the real devel- of the obstacles facing the use of solar energy plants in the
opment of solar energy has been very slow or even non- Ivory Coast [2].
existent in most of these countries.
The main problems that remain to be addressed are : 2. GEOGRAPHIC AND CLIMATIC SITUATION
Yamoussoukro (645'N and 5:21'W) is in a transition
zone between the savanna (north) and the tropical forest
(south) of the Ivory Coast (Fig. 1). Its climate is influenced
by a damp coastal strip and dry weather in the north. Two
seasons can be distinguished: dry (December to March)
and rainy (May to October). The first, the dry season, is
characterized by the north wind from the Sahara, the Har-
mattan, loaded with fine dust. The temperature (maximum
and minimum, Figs 2 and 3), shows that, for a whole year,
the mean temperature ranges between 2 0 and 35'C. The
relative humidity (Figs 4 and 5) is rarely lower than 28%
(December to February). It is generally above 85% (May to
October).

40
T °C

30

2° N

Fig. l. Schematic map of the Ivory Coast.

Month•
10 I, I ' 1 ' 1 ' I' I ' 1 ' 1 ' I ' 1 ' | ' 1
M J J A S O N D J F M A
* Present address: Laboratoire des Materiaux (CNRS-
ENSCT), 38 rue des 36 ponts, 31400 Toulouse, France. Fig. 2. Annual variation (max. and rain.) of temperature.

919
920 Data Bank

40 100 '
T °C

30

60'

20
40'

h
10 ! ! 20 , ,

2 12 22 2 1 22
Fig. 3. Temperatures (max. and min.) over a day. Fig. 5. Relative humidity (max. and min.) over a day.

3. SOLAR ENERGY BALANCE Table 1. Comparison of solar radiation between a sunny and
a Harmattan day
The distribution of solar measurement instruments
(global, diffuse and direct), in the Ivory Coast is shown in
Mean Solar radiation (kWh/m 2" J)
Fig. 6 [3]: we can see that, in the north, where the num-
visibility
ber of hours of sunshine (insolation) is very high, we do not
Months (km) Direct Diffuse Global
have a good distribution.
The annual insolation and rainfall diagram (Fig. 7) shows
March 11.5 3.6 2.2 5.8
that the dry season is characterized by very low precipitation
December 1.0 2.1 4.2 4.3
(0-20 mm/month), but that for the rest of the year, the
Relat. Var. -- -42% +48% -26%
rainfall is greater (50-250 mm/month). The insolation situ-
ation is obviously the opposite (170 h/month in the dry
season and 140 h/month in the rainy season). A very large reduction of direct radiation is due to atmo-
Figure 8 shows solar radiation during sunny and rainy spheric aerosols.
days. We can see that direct solar radiation is reduced to
87% in July. On the other hand, in March, diffuse/global
radiation is about 25%, so it increases strongly in the rainy
season (60%). 4. CONCLUSION
Another parameter for the reduction of solar radiation Solar energy, by its very nature (dilution, intermittence,
is the cloud of dust (Harmattan). Figure 9 shows annual irregularity, storage, etc.) is exploitable only with difficulty.
variation of visibility, vapour pressure, and cloud cover We can add to this the many different influences of atmo-
(nebulosity). During the Harmattan, visibility is reduced to spheric parameters which reduce solar radiation in tropical
less than 1 km. zones. During the Harmattan and the rainy season, direct
In Table I, we compare solar radiation (kWh/m2.J) radiation is strongly reduced and diffuse radiation increases.
between a sunny and a Harmattan day : In consequence, the use of solar concentrators is not very
judicious for these sites. The damage to equipment (collec-
tors, protective coating of cells, accessories, etc.) exposed
to solar flux and temperatures >50°C during the dry
season reduces their performance and their life. Control
100 of energy consumption implies that solar technology
% development is inevitable in tropical zones. However, we
must avoid launching into expenditure and ambitious
80- projects before carrying out long-range planning : they must
be simple, economic and easy to maintain, by using local
60- industry and raw materials.
The technological feasibility is not the only condition
required to generalize solar energy plants in developing coun-
40' tries. Concerning Yamoussoukro's regions, it seems inter-
esting to develop solar heating systems such as :
20-
• solar water heating for buildings ;
• drying, for agricultural products (e.g. cocoa, coffee and
Months
0 i , l , t . l , z . l , | . a , z - l . l . z tobacco, etc.), and fish.
M J J A S O N D J FM A
One can imagine the creation of a new technology : "Hello-
Fig. 4. Annual variation (max. and min.) of relative Architecture", where the solar and other climatic conditions
humidity. are inextricably linked.
 Data Bank 921

® Nam
~ ® ® Ferke - ~ Varale \
~.~ e Obifnne Bondiali . or~hog (~)Y ~

~5~:~Uana ~ Dianrl ii~kara Onde(~fiduo~'~

L,,.... ~(~uba-Mahana Bondukou~

(/~ - Marab~adiassa ® (~ #
Bouake Serebou //

Man Yamoussoukro
® Daloa ~ ® Daoukro (
/ ~ (~ (~ Yam(]) AbengourouJ
J Guessabo ~ Dimbokro (1~ (

~.._T:,- (]) uagnoa ~Divo (])T-fiassale

~'-~Tal ~ Soubre-Cedar (~) ®(])T (II~T.® Ayame~_
~ Az~guieIrfa ~
fl~Yokoboue ,tl~(~)o~ma r~ng(~)~i,|e ~ . Ehania/
F ~ ~ ' r ~ ; ' n : ~- - diake
~ B ° l ~ u Jacqu~ev~u~" As~
I (~_~Sassandra
I ~f-San-Pedro
_ T~~abou GD Berebi

(~) GunnBellani (33)

T Pyranometre(Kipp-Lambda-Robitzch) (10)
® HeliographCampbell Stock (36)
Fig. 6. Distribution of solar instruments in the Ivory Coast.
922 Data Bank

300

200

100

0
M J d A S O N D J F M A
Fig. 7. Annual insolation (h, in grey) and rainfall (mm).

Global Diffuse Direct

800 80C 800

6OO 60O 600

4O0 400 400

200 20O /," N,,,--.%, 200

6 8 10 12 14 16 18
IL
6 8 10 12 14 16 18
I 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
r(h) r(h) r(h)
Fig. 8. Solar radiation over a day.

......... " .... -. ,.--I-4"-" ~Z-~, ~--- J25

, \,...'.\ / , , ,, -.
¢.-_: / "--"C- 2 0 ~..O
E
~ls E
> Z
10
I ~-2 \\ ;

Fig. 9. Annual variation of: visibility (km) ; nebulosity (Octas) -- ; vapour pressure (rnb) . . . . . . . .

REFERENCES
zone intertropicale, TFE-ENSI, ENSTP, Yamoussoukro
I. J. R. Vaillant, Utilization et promesses de l'~nergie solaire (1987).
(Edition Eyrolles) (1978). 3. A N A M (Agence Nationale A6rodromes et de la M6t6o-
2. A. Tofighi and T. Djakaridjd, Contraintes solaires en rologie), Rap. Int. Abidjan (1987).