Computing the exergy of solar radiation from real radiation data

The decrease of fossil fuels availability and the consequent increase of their price have led to a rapid evolution of renewable market and policy frameworks in recent years. Renewable resources include solar radiation, which is of considerable interest as it is inexhaustible, free, and clean. In order to calculate how much work can be obtained from solar radiation, several methods have been proposed in the literature and are here reviewed. In this paper, a single exergy factor to be applied to the total radiation measured on horizontal surface in a given place is proposed. The factor is estimated from both direct and diffuse radiation.