I highly recommend this website for all types of information on coffee production in Puerto Rico. Felicidades Professor Miguel F. Monroig Inglés on a great website!!
The website is in Spanish, however, your browser should allow you to translate the text into whatever language you like.
What are People doing with the Northern Caribbean Solar Radiation Data – Unedited list (March-December 2011).
1 “It is going to be used as part of International Cooperation Proyect to build a Hospital in Haiti, to justify the need to use solar led lights”
2 In a study on solar water treatment for Haiti
3 study
4 Photovoltaic cell design
5 personal education and use
6 Help understand the magnitude and variability of solar radiation in the Caribbean – internal research and development only
7 “We’re working with a group call MFK (Meds & Food for Kids), on a 20K SqFt food processing facility. Still early in the process, but we’re considering solar for some of their energy needs.”
8 solar project assessment
9 I need solar radiation data for Brookings SD for designing PV systems.
10 Hobby
11 research for cellular company
12 Para dimensionar instalaciones solares fotovoltaicas
13 for class porpuse
14 Personal use
15 Solar research
16 in our studies of plant photosynthesis in the coastal forest of Guánica
17 Project for University involving PV installations
18 Research
19 Reference information for a proyect.
20 “I am in the process of sizing a small a stand-alone system for the general location within Kingston, Jamaica and would like to use the daily average insolation for each month.”
21 “To correctly size a off-grid system for Kingston, Jamaica.”
22 SWAT input data
23 for solar parks
24 Potential for use in SWAT
25 moving to dominican republic… allergic to sun…
26 solar panels development
27 Energy analysis of the USVI
28 “research project for the Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame, identifying scale and scope of solar microgrids capabilities in the Caribbean.”
29 pv system design
30 Analysis to estimate systems performance for DR
31 Verify production estimate for Puerto Rico site
32 Design of low-cost housing in Haiti integrating appropriate solar technologies.
33 To compare ground measured solar resource to satellite and ground observation data.
34 To conduct a pre-screening of solar sites
35 Analysis for renewable energy planning
36 My personal installation on my roof top
37 solar power estimation
38 Research
39 design
40 Adding solar Electricity to my home in Negril Jamaica.
41 study opportunity for solar energy in Jamaica
42 Determining growing conditions for commercial tomatoes greenhouse production. Data is required to determining technical feasability .
43 I’m testing out a program that calculates vadose zone recharge.
44 To support the development of a solar power project in PR
45 solar system sizing
46 modeling for long term average for comparing on the ground data to this data for PV systems in Haiti
47 “I am looking into the flooding patterns of the Savane Jong outside of Gonaives, Haiti. It seems to flood mostly due to torrential rains from seasonal hurricanes late summer, but sometimes it floods as early as March. This is as much I understand from satellite imagery.”
48 To figure out a solar array
49 valutazioni fonti rinnovabili
50 Assess solar projects in the region.
51 Designing solar PV systems for Haitian Doctor’s clinic
52 STUDENT RESEARCH
53 Making Solar Panels
54 In support of an ongoing interagency study on coral reef health
55 to determine potential output for PV systems in Puerto Rico.
56 Calculate energy production from 5mW solarfarm
57 Internal research and development
58 knowledge to solar opportunties in this part of the world
59 planning a solar system for a business
60 We are help partners in health build a solar system for a hospital in Haiti
61 to determine the size of a thermal relief valve
62 Busco datos de insolacion solar en la Republica Dominicana por parte de un desarrollador de energia renovable
63 for project work i’m student
64 study for solar cooking in Haiti
65 Estimating for solar system production
66 renewable energy design
67 designing solar systems
68 I am the UNICEF regional advisor for immunisation cold chains and am assessing whether a particular solar refrigerator technology for vaccine storage is suitable for installation in Haiti
69 Have estimated potential ET in the past for several meteorological stations in south and interior parts of Puerto Rico. I’m also considering proposals to investigate changes in thermodynamic properties of some greenhouse gases in the tropics.
70 I am the UNICEF regional advisor for immunisation cold chains and am assessing whether a particular solar refrigerator technology for vaccine storage is suitable for installation in Haiti
71 solar project evaluation
72 I am completing a small scale renewable energy project that I started in the Dominican Republic. I am using the data to calculate the payback time for a solar panel that I installed.
73 Future meteorologist studying weather patterns.
74 As climate information in ArcSWAT for Jamaica
75 RFP Solar Bid for USVI
76 acadamic
77 inform a project proposal for a mini electricity grid in northern haiti
78 To analyze a package of meteorological data.
79 This data is required to help us determine the cost effectiveness of building 10 MW solar-battery farms in this region of the developing world.
80 Estimation of solar power available in Haiti
81 Research
82 “We are looking for new business opportunities in South America, we are specialized in on and off-grid installations, we have some clients and need the solar radiations as to be able to make exact calculations for on grid ROI or Off-grid amount of modules, batteries, etc. we usually work with PVGIS but its not available in this program.”
83 Class discussions
84 Urban heat island modelling
85 Research
86 For a senior project design about solar panels array
87 research
88 photovoltaic apps
89 Help customers to better understand solar energy solutions.
90 solar radaition study for nepal…how the solar radiation will help the to reduce 12hrs load shedding per day in nepal
91 for class project
92 Potential solar project in Haiti.
93 To determine the feasability and power availability for solar arrays in the country of Haiti.
94 Evaluation solar plant in Haiti
95 For information purpose.
96 Investigate solar potential in Haiti
97 Evaluate the solar resource available in Puerto Rico
98 to select potentialsite for PV projects.
99 homework
100 We are planing on solar plant developments.
101 Para mi tesis de grado.
102 For production modelling of PV systems.
103 considering a solar project on a farm on the south coast to bolster income from livestock.
104 Preliminary investigation of solar potential in Puerto Rico for photovoltaic power plants.
A simple spreadsheet for scheduling irrigation can be downloaded by CLICKING HERE.
(Spreadsheet updated Nov 28, 2018)
The methodology used in the spreadsheet is presented in Crop evapotranspiration – Guidelines for computing crop water requirements – FAO Irrigation and drainage paper 56, Chapter 8
To use the spreadsheet, you need to enter input wherever the cells are yellow. Here are some basic instructions:
Setting up the Spreadsheet
1. In the first Worksheet Tab (Soil Moisture Worksheet), enter the date of the first day of the crop season.
2. Enter soil field capacity and wilting point in percent. If you know the soil texture you can get the field capacity and wilting point online by clicking here.
3. Enter rooting depth for each day of the season. Maximum rooting depths for various crops are given in FAO 56 Table 22.
4. Management Allowed Deficit (MAD) is given in FAO 56 Table 22, however, the FAO refers to it as the Depletion Fraction (P). P and MAD are the same thing.
5. Enter soil volumetric moisture content as a percent on the first day of the season.
6. Enter the evapotranspiration (ETc) each day. Many meteorologic stations will provide estimates of daily reference evapotranspiration (ETo). You will need to multiply the ETo by the appropriate crop coefficient (Kc) for your crop to obtain the actual evapotranspiration (ETc).
7. Enter the rainfall or irrigation each day.
8. In the next Worksheet Tab (Application Rate), enter the date of the first day of the crop season.
9. Enter the area of the field in acres.
10. Enter the percent wetted area. If drip irrigation is used, only a portion of the field may become wet.
11. Enter the percent efficiency of the irrigation system.
12. Enter the pump flow rate in gallons per minute.
Using the Spreadsheet to Schedule Irrigation
The objective of the analysis is to minimize crop stress as indicated by the crop stress factor (Ks). If this parameter is less than 1, then the crop is in a state of water stress. To simplify the analysis the spreadsheet provides the column “Did Stress Occur?” When stress occurs, as indicated by “Yes”, then you should irrigate your crop. To see how much you should irrigate, see the column called “Irrigation Needed”. Enter the amount you want to irrigate in the column called “Applied Irrigation or Rainfall”. Finally, go to the Application Rate Worksheet Tab to see how many hours you should run your irrigation system to put on the desired amount of water.
Soil Moisture Graph Worksheet Tab. Any time that this graph falls below the green line (Threshold Moisture Content) the crop is in stress. Throughout the crop season the graph should never fall below this line if possible. It is also very important that the soil moisture not exceed the field capacity because this water will be wasted, either through deep percolation or surface runoff.
ETcadj Worksheet Tab. The evapotranspiration is shown in this worksheet. ETcadj is the crop ET multiplied by the crop stress factor, and represents the real ET.
Crop Stress Factor Worksheet Tab. This graphs shows the crop stress factor as a function of time throughout the crop season. This line should be as close as possible to 1 throughout the season. Any value lower than 1 indicates that stress occurred. NOTE ALSO!! In this worksheet a value of the relative seasonal crop yield is provided. The yield response factor (Ky) required to calculate the relative yield can be obtained from Table 24 of the FAO 56 document for various crops.
Cumulative ET vs Irrigation Worksheet Tab. The purpose of this graph is to show how close your applied irrigation was to the ET. Throughout the season and at the end of the season, the value of the cumulative irrigation should be as close as possible to the cumulative ET. (Note in this graph that the ET used is the ETc and not the ETcadj).
DISCLAIMER: The information on this website is provided “as is”. The authors and publishers of this information disclaim any loss or liability, either directly or indirectly as a consequence of applying the information provided herein, or in regard to the use and application of said information. No guarantee is given, either expressed or implied, in regard to the accuracy, or acceptability of the information.
Estimate the long-term average weather conditions at any location in Puerto Rico using the PRET computer program. Although the program is intended to estimate the monthly and daily evapotranspiration, you can also obtain monthly values of minimum and maximum air temperature, dew point temperature, wind velocity and solar radiation. Here are the steps:
1. Download PRET from the following link: https://pragwater.com/crop-water-use/ Background documentation is available at this site which describes the methods used to estimate the long-term weather data.
2. Install PRET on your computer.
3. Run PRET. You will see the splash screen below. Click on OK.
4. On the INPUT DATA screen, enter any crop from the drop down screen (e.g., tomato). Do not use “generic”, otherwise you will need to enter some crop coefficient information later. Enter the name of your location (e.g., Juana Diaz), enter your site latitude (e.g., 18.06) and your site elevation (e.g., 55 m). Ignore all other requested input on the page. click Next.
5. Click the icon that says “Have Program Calculate Climate Data (Applicable only for Puerto Rico)”.
6. Click on the appropriate NOAA Climate Division. For example, Juana Diaz, PR, is in Climate Division 2.
7. The next page will give you the results of the long-term monthly weather parameters for your site. If you like you can save the data to a text file.
If you have any questions, contact me at eric.harmsen@upr.edu
Eric
DISCLAIMER: The information is provided “as is”. The authors and publishers of this information disclaim any loss or liability, either directly or indirectly as a consequence of applying the information provided herein, or in regard to the use and application of said information. No guarantee is given, either expressed or implied, in regard to the accuracy, or acceptability of the information.
Photos from my TMAG 4035 Soil and Water Management Course, Spring 2011. The photos show the students installing a drip irrigation system in the Finca Alzamora on the campus of the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.
GOES-Puerto Rico Water and Energy Balance (GOES-PRWEB) 2010 results: http://wp.me/P1s0De-9j
The page now includes many more images for 2010. In addition to the water balance components, the following images are provided:
Transient Variables/Parameters
Air temperature, minimum air temperature, maximum air temperature, effective surface temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, saturated vapor pressure, actual vapor pressure, solar radiation, aerodynamic resistance (Ra), surface resistance (Rs), soil moisture, crop coefficient (Kc), crop stress factor (Ks), net radiation, latent heat flux and sensible heat flux.
Non-transient Parameters:
Surface elevation, Percent sand, silt and clay, field capacity, wilting point, land use/land cover, zero plane displacement and surface roughness, and albedo.
When asked “How are you planning to use the solar radiation data?”, here are some of the answers:
“It is going to be used as part of International Cooperation Project to build a Hospital in Haiti, to justify the need to use solar LED lights”
“In a study on solar water treatment for Haiti”
“Photovoltaic cell design”
“Help understand the magnitude and variability of solar radiation in the Caribbean”
“We’re working….on a 20K SqFt food processing facility. Still early in the process, but we’re considering solar for some of their energy needs.”
“Research for cellular company”
“Para dimensionar instalaciones solares fotovoltaicas”
“In our studies of plant photosynthesis in the coastal forest of Guánica”
“I am in the process of sizing a small stand-alone system for the general location within Kingston, Jamaica and would like to use the daily average insolation for each month.”
“To correctly size a off-grid system for Kingston, Jamaica.”
“SWAT input data”
“For solar parks”
I am very happy to see the public is finding this data useful. My thanks again to Dr. John Mecikalsk for extending the GDM GOES-based solar radiation model to include Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Cuba.
PRAGWATER 