A selection of eight high performance clear sky solar irradiance models is evaluated against a set of 16 independent data banks covering 20 years/stations, altitudes from sea level to 1600 m and a large range of different climates. Their performance evaluated on very clear condition measurements are within 4% in term of standard deviation. The conclusions are that the accuracy of the input parameters such as the turbidity is crucial in the validity of the obtained radiation components, and that the choice of a specific model is secondary. The model selection criteria should be based upon either implementation simplicity, input parameter availability (Linke turbidity or aerosol optical depth) or the capacity of the model to produce spectral radiation. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.