The FY-2C meteorological satellite launched by China provides reliable data for estimating solar radiation reaching the earth surface. Solar radiation in three provinces (Henan, Hubei,and Hunan) of the central China is estimated, respectively, through the artificial neural network and statistical methods with FY-2C data. The results show: (1) the FY-2C data can be used to estimate solar radiation, with five bands of FY-2C contributed to the retrieval of solar radiation; (2) the neural network method is superior to the statistical method; (3) the differences in spatial and temporal scopes between satellite and ground observation result in the errors of solar radiation estimation with FY-2C.