PHYS-E0483 Advances in New Energy Technologies (Spring 2018)

Exercise 2

Address questions to sami.jouttijarvi@aalto.fi

Submit your answer by Friday 26.1.2018 at 14:15 via MyCourses as a single file.

In this exercise we use MATLAB software. It is installed to University’s computers and can be
installed to student’s personal computers from download.aalto.fi. You can use some other software
as well, but please note that the ready-made code is provided for MATLAB only.

1. Demonstration

Download the files from MyCourses. Use the code provided to perform a Fourier analysis to the
hourly solar radiation intensity data for August 2013 from Helsinki. What kind of regularities appear
in the data? At which frequencies do the peaks appear? How do you explain these frequencies?

2. Home exercise

Download the files from MyCourses. Use the files and the code provided to perform a Fourier analysis
to hourly datasets data1, data2 and data3. Each dataset contains data from 1.1.2013 to 31.12.2015 on
one of the following subjects:

 Solar radiation intensity in Helsinki, Finland (W/m 2)

 Solar radiation intensity in Conception, Chile (W/m2)
 Electricity consumption in Helsinki, Finland (MWh/h)
 Electricity consumption in Finland (MWh/h)
 Estimated power production of 4.5 MW wind turbine located inland in Tornio, Finland (kW)
 Estimated power production of 3.3 MW wind turbine located at sea outside Helsinki, Finland
(kW)

What kind of regularities appear in the datasets? At which frequencies do the peaks appear? How do
you explain these frequencies? Based on Fourier transformation (and raw data) identify what of the
alternatives above each dataset represents. Justify your answers.

Please add figures of the Fourier spectra with a reasonable scale to your answer. (Reasonable scale =
the peaks you discuss about can be recognized from the figure.)

Tip: You can edit the figures the code produces by selecting Edit  Figure properties in MATLAB.