National Solar Radiation Database

What Is the NSRDB?

WHAT IS THE

NSRDB?

The National Solar Radiation Database (NSRDB) is a serially complete collection of hourly and half-hourly values of meteorological data and the three most common measurements of solar radiation: global horizontal, direct normal and diffuse horizontal irradiance.

It covers the United States and a growing subset of international locations. These data have been collected at a sufficient number of locations and temporal and spatial scales to accurately represent regional solar radiation climates. For a given location covered by the dataset, it is possible to see the amount of solar energy that was at a given time, and to predict the potential future availability of solar energy based on past conditions.

Latest Publication

THE NATIONAL SOLAR RADIATION DATABASE

"This paper briefly reviews the complete package of surface observations, models, and satellite data."

U.S. Data

NREL has provided solar resource data for the United States through the NRSDB for more than 25 years.
International Data

The NSRDB contains not only data for the United States, but also for a growing list of countries in different parts of the world.
Typical Meterological Year

Learn about the Typical Meterological Year (TMY) data type used in the NSRDB.
Spectral On-Demand Data

The spectral on-demand data service provides solar irradiances on inclined PV panels.

Data & Applications

NSRDB data is publicly available at no cost. The data can be accessed via the NSRDB Viewer Application. Additionally NSRDB data are compatible with many system performance and economic models, including the following products created by NREL.