fact checkfact check: is australia the sunniest continent on earth? - all in one solar street light

The Australian Labor Party has called for a substantial increase in renewable energy by 2030.
Opposition leader Bill Shore announced a plan to generate half of Australia's electricity from renewable sources by 2030, ahead of the Labor Party national conference in July.
Part of the plan includes the introduction of more solar panels on the roofs of homes and businesses.
On the 7 th of ABC.
Mr. Shorten said: "Our continent has more solar coverage per square meter than any other continent in the world.
"So, what is Australia's solar coverage compared to other continents?
ABC fact-finding.
According to the Australian energy assessment published by the Australian Institute of Earth Sciences, the amount of sunlight on Earth, known as "solar energy", varies greatly around the world, federal government agencies.
"These changes depend on several factors, including proximity to the equator, cloud cover and other atmospheric effects," the assessment said . ".
The solar radiation in cloudy climate areas is less than that in clouds.
According to the US Department of Energy's national laboratory for renewable energy, the desert is free.
"Urban air pollution, smoke from forest fires and ash in the air generated by volcanic activity reduce solar energy resources," the department said . ".
Solar coverage of global horizontal radiation measurement (GHI)
And direct solar irradiance (DNI).
Wes Stein, head of the CSIRO Solar Technology team, told Check that both GHI and DNI need to be considered when measuring solar coverage in a continent, as they refer to different solar technologies
"Both work equally," he said . "
GHI is solar radiation from any direction to non
Move the horizontal surface, such as photovoltaic solar panels on the roof of the home.
DNI is the radiation seen by The Sun collector, pointing directly to the sun, and constantly tracking the sun as the sun moves throughout the day.
Solar collectors for large-scale solar power generation systems, such as the dish of the ANU, use DNI.
GHI and DNI can be expressed in kilowatts
Hours, per square meter, per day (kWh/m2/day)
This is the average solar energy that lands in square meters day by day.
"In theory, in the square about 50 kilometers by 50 kilometers, there is enough sun to fall (or 0.
03% of Australia)
All electricity available in Australia.
"This includes all the space between panels, as well as typical efficiency," he said . ".
If all the electricity in Australia is generated by solar power, he says, it will require technology that can store a lot of solar energy.
"Storage is obviously needed, but this is another issue.
"The GHI and DNI of each continent are determined using a combination of ground measurements, satellite data and modeling.
"The most accurate way to measure the sun is to use special instruments on the ground.
However, it is impossible for us to have one like this every square kilometer.
They are expensive.
So different approaches are used to try to fill the gap between these stations, "Mr. Stein said.
Satellite data and modeling are used to fill the gap between ground measuring stations.
Mr. Stein provided his data from Meteotest, an independent private company that provided global weather data through its product, Meteonorm.
He also provided data for the three most sunny continents he obtained from solar technology consultant GeoModel, which provides geographic information for the solar industry through its website SolarGIS.
Compared to countries such as New Zealand and Hawaii that are not part of a particular continental plot, Meteonorm includes Oceania.
It also includes Antarctica, but experts in fact-finding contact say there is no accurate data on Antarctica.
"Look at the South Pole [
Ground measurement
They are almost all on the coast, so there is no geographical stability . "
"More attention is focused on modeling in densely populated areas, and accurate modeling closer to the polar regions is much more difficult.
"Jesse copper from the school of Photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering at the University of New South Wales conducted a fact-finding analysis using NASA data.
These three sets of data show that Africa is only ahead of Australia in terms of GHI, but Australia has more DNI than Africa.
Uncertainty associated with calibration of satellite data and modeling based on a limited number of ground measuring stations means that the data has margin of error.
GHI error for meteorological model and geographic model data is 4% and DNI error is 8%.
The data errors of nasa ghi and DNI are 10 and 20 respectively.
In all three of GHI's data sets, Africa's leading edge is within the error range.
Experts contacted by the fact-finding said that after considering these uncertainties in the data, GHI in Africa is considered to be the same as GHI in Australia.
Associate Professor Alistair Sproul worked with Dr. Copper of UNSW.
He told Check that the data showed that the status of the two continents was similar.
"Statistically, the two numbers are equal, because there are only a few percent of the difference, and within the uncertainty of the data," he said . ".
NASA's data show that Africa and Australia have the same DNI in the error range, but NASA's data has greater experimental uncertainty than Meteonorm and SolarGIS data, this has allowed Australia to go above the wrong edge and ahead of Africa.
Maps of GHI and DNI tell similar stories.
Cedric phillipbert is a renewable energy analyst at the International Energy Agency, which provides statistics, analysis and policy advocacy for 29 member states.
"If you look at these continental maps of GHI, you will find that Australia seems to be in the top spot, and Africa is behind it, so this may be considered ambiguous.
However, if you consider DNI, the conclusion is not vague: "Australia is the continent with the most DNI resources," he said.
Earth science in Australia has a similar view.
Australia's energy assessment said: "solar radiation per square meter on the Australian mainland is the highest in the world.
"In terms of solar coverage, Africa is the only continent close to Australia.
GHI believes that the solar coverage on these two continents is the same (
Global horizontal radiation
Within the error range.
However, the solar coverage of DNI in Australia is higher than that of Africa (
Direct Normal Irradiance).
Experts told checkcheck that when all factors are considered to be the highest solar coverage in mainland Australia, there is broad agreement.
Mr Shorten's claim was confirmed.
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