Daily average solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada

This dataset includes daily averages of solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada based on the period of 1998 - 2022.

Daily averages of solar irradiance are displayed on both a monthly and annual basis for ten different tilt and tracking methods relative to the ground (horizontal) and latitude of the location.

The daily averages were derived from multi-year satellite-derived solar resource datasets at an hourly temporal resolution and gridded geospatial resolution of approximately 10 km by 10 km.

The data can be used to further assess the potential of solar energy technologies in Canada, including solar photovoltaics (PV) for electricity and solar thermal for domestic hot water and space heating.

Maps of solar resource potential in Canada – Data Format

The data stored in these files includes the daily-average insolation on tilted surfaces in units of kW·hr/m² for a given period. Each band represents period, numbered in order: band 1 = Annual, band 2 = January, band 3 = February, ..., band 13 = December.

The period of averaging is the year 1998-2022, inclusive.

Four fixed tilted surfaces of 0° (horizontal), 30°, 60°, and 90° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane:

fixed tilted surfaces of 0° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane (H+ 00 S+00)
fixed tilted surfaces of 30° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane (H+ 30 S+00)
fixed tilted surfaces of 60° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane (H+ 60 S+00)
fixed tilted surfaces of 90° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plan (H+ 90 S+00)

Three fixed tilted surfaces of 0°, +15°, and -15°, relative to the local latitude:

fixed tilted surfaces of 0° relative to the local latitude (L+00 S+00)
fixed tilted surfaces of +15°, relative to the local latitude (L+00 S+00)
fixed tilted surfaces of -15°, relative to the local latitude (L+00 S+00)
A two-axis tracking surface that follows the sun throughout the day (T+00 T+00)
A single-axis tracking surface with the axis aligned north-south, tracking the sun east to west (A+00_S+90)
A single-axis tracking surface with the axis aligned east-west, tracking the sun's elevation (A+00_S+00)

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 02:07 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 02:07 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.	Climatology Meteorology Atmosphere, Environment
Title Title for the Dataset.	Daily average solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada
Description A description of the dataset.	This dataset includes daily averages of solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada based on the period of 1998 - 2022. Daily averages of solar irradiance are displayed on both a monthly and annual basis for ten different tilt and tracking methods relative to the ground (horizontal) and latitude of the location. The daily averages were derived from multi-year satellite-derived solar resource datasets at an hourly temporal resolution and gridded geospatial resolution of approximately 10 km by 10 km. The data can be used to further assess the potential of solar energy technologies in Canada, including solar photovoltaics (PV) for electricity and solar thermal for domestic hot water and space heating. `Maps of solar resource potential in Canada – Data Format` The data stored in these files includes the daily-average insolation on tilted surfaces in units of kW·hr/m² for a given period. Each band represents period, numbered in order: band 1 = Annual, band 2 = January, band 3 = February, ..., band 13 = December. The period of averaging is the year 1998-2022, inclusive. Four fixed tilted surfaces of 0° (horizontal), 30°, 60°, and 90° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane: fixed tilted surfaces of 0° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane (H+ 00 S+00) fixed tilted surfaces of 30° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane (H+ 30 S+00) fixed tilted surfaces of 60° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plane (H+ 60 S+00) fixed tilted surfaces of 90° (vertical) relative to the horizontal plan (H+ 90 S+00) Three fixed tilted surfaces of 0°, +15°, and -15°, relative to the local latitude: fixed tilted surfaces of 0° relative to the local latitude (L+00 S+00) fixed tilted surfaces of +15°, relative to the local latitude (L+00 S+00) fixed tilted surfaces of -15°, relative to the local latitude (L+00 S+00) A two-axis tracking surface that follows the sun throughout the day (T+00 T+00) A single-axis tracking surface with the axis aligned north-south, tracking the sun east to west (A+00_S+90) A single-axis tracking surface with the axis aligned east-west, tracking the sun's elevation (A+00_S+00)
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Climate Meteorological data Nature and Environment Renewable energy Renewable resources Science and Technology Solar energy
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	2025-06-16
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/1ab9f334-1e24-468b-bdc5-c086b3c19c8a
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Natural Resources Canada \| Ressources naturelles Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?	Government of Canada;Natural Resources Canada;Canmet ENERGY Ottawa/Energy Technology Sector/Buildings and Renewables/Renewable Heat and Power, canadiansolardatabase-basededonneessolairecanadienne@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	canadiansolardatabase-basededonneessolairecanadienne@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

Daily average solar irradiance on tilted surfaces for all of Canada

Datasets available for download

Additional Info

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