Comparison of methodologies for generating a typical meteorological year (TMY)

This paper reviews different methodologies available to generate typical meteorological year (TMY) data when long-term observed meteorological data is not available for a particular location, as is the case of most developing countries. The Type 54 weather generator incorporated in TRNSYS is the most common method to generate TMY data where observed meteorological data is not available. As a case-study to validate the Type 54 weather generator, average daily solar radiation generated by the Type 54 Weather generator was compared using two different inputs against known TMY data for the Australian cities of Canberra, Hobart and Melbourne. It was found that the percentage variation is less than 7% for inputs from long-term observed data and more than 7% for inputs from NASA as compared to the known TMY data.