Energy from the Desert (book review by Nathaniel Steier)

“Energy from the Desert: Feasability of Very Large Scale Power Generation (VLS-PV)”1st EditionKosuke Kurokawa©2006ISBN-13: 978-1902916415, ISBN-10: 1902916417  
I was drawn to this book – besides the topic – because Professor David Faiman of Ben-Gurion University had writing credits on several chapters. I had visited this campus in Beer Sheba, Israel – as well as the Negev desert – twice in the past.
The book is now 16 years old and provides a snapshot: * of where technology, research, and application were* of where all three were predicted to be
There was a whole chapter dedicated to world irradiation databases. Several data sets were mentioned.

Some of the links have changed and even the methods of viewing the datasets have changed (such as making direct API – Application Programming Interface – code requests).

Below is a US-based one:

NSRDBNational Solar Radiation Databasehttps://nsrdb.nrel.gov/data-sets/download-instructions.htm
Additionally, a link to archived data:
https://nsrdb.nrel.gov/data-sets/archives.html
Chapter 3 – which went in the semiconductor technology – was also a favorite. (I had studied this as an undergraduate.)