Solcast Data
Solcast https://solcast.com is a global provider of solar forecasting and historical data services. It offers API based delivery of three types of solar resource and weather data: time-series, TMY and monthly averages.
Solcast historical data is created using a global network of give weather satellite to image the world’s cloud cover in high resolution, multi- spectral imagery at up to 5-minute intervals. The resolution of this data is about 1km2 resolution on average across these regions of coverage.
Solcast data is created using a combination of peer-reviewed, industry-standard models, and algorithms developed in-house. These include 3D cloud modelling, aerosols impacts (dust, organics, salts, etc) and the incorporation of water vapour data from weather models.
Solcast’s global coverage areas
The Solcast data are available through a monthly subscription. Free tier users are provided 2 TMY and 5 Monthly Averages files per month. Additional file requests area available for pay for a monthly fee.
TMY data specifications
| Coverage | Global, except for ocean and polar regions |
| Spatial resolution of satellite data | 1-2 km |
| Time granularity | 60 minute |
| Timespan of database used to generate TMY | January 2007 to 7 days ago |
| Parameters used in PVsyst | - Global Horizontal Irradiance (GHI, W/m2) |
- Diffuse Horizontal Irradiance (DHI, W/m2)
- Temperature (TEMP, °C)
- Wind Speed (WS, m/s)
- Relative Humidity (RH, %)
- Precipitable Water (PWAT, kg/m2)
- Albedo (ratio) | | Database update frequency | Monthly | | Download wait time | Less than 10 seconds |