Analysis and Breakdown of TMY3 Dataset

This week we will be breaking down and analyzing over 19GB of TMY3 related datasets collected by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). This data will help create an automated algorithm that will predict and specify where a particular renewable energy technology will and will not run at optimum. This data will be integral component in our mission to design location specific, tailored renewable energy system conversions for U.S. communities. This data will also help in designing and building new cities and communities by analyzing Commercial and Residential Hourly Load Profiles for all TMY3 Locations in the United States.

NREL describes TMY3 data in this excerpt:

"A typical meteorological year (TMY) data set provides designers and other users with a reasonably sized annual data set that holds hourly meteorological values that typify conditions at a specific location over a longer period of time, such as 30 years. TMY data sets are widely used by building designers and others for modeling renewable energy conversion systems. Although not designed to provide meteorological extremes, TMY data have natural diurnal and seasonal variations and represent a year of typical climatic conditions for a location." (NREL.org)

More information on the TMY Datasets:

"The TMY data sets hold hourly values of solar radiation and meteorological elements for a 1- year period. Their intended use is for computer simulations of solar energy conversion systems and building systems to facilitate performance comparisons of different system types, configurations, and locations in the United States and its territories."

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy08osti/43156.pdf

For building future cities:

http://en.openei.org/datasets/dataset/commercial-and-residential-hourly-load-profiles-for-all-tmy3-locations-in-the-united-states

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