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Abstract
Solar panels are one of the most promising renewable technologies for energizing future buildings. For roof top solar panel installations, knowledge of the optimum tilt angle is important to have the maximum annual or seasonal energy yield. The annual optimum tilt
angle is dependent on many factors such as the latitude of the location and the weather condition. In an urban application, the optimum
tilt angle can be aected by the surrounding obstacles. Consequently, new concerns such as shading or sky blocking eects have to be
taken into consideration. In this paper, a simple method is proposed based on a modied sky model to calculate the optimum angle of
installation for the urban applications. The obtained results demonstrate the dependency of the optimum angle of installation on the
latitude, weather condition and surroundings.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Urban buildings; Solar energy; Orientation of photovoltaic panels
1. Introduction
Environmental concerns as well as increasing demand
for cleaner energy are strong motives for further investment and research in renewable resources. Urban environments due to their high density of energy consumption are
considered to be one of the most promising locations for
installation of renewable energy technologies. Among different types of available technologies, solar panels show
promise for building integrated applications. For solar
installations, the optimum tilt angle is an important data
for each location which aects the annual energy yield of
the whole system. The optimum tilt angle is inuenced by
dierent factors such as the latitude of the location, clear Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 514 848 2424x7089; fax: +1 514 848
2802.
E-mail addresses: ar_ghar@encs.concordia.ca (A. Gharakhani Siraki),
pillay@encs.concordia.ca (P. Pillay).
0038-092X/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2012.02.030
1921
monthly average daily insolation levels on horizontal surfaces, it is considered to be the input of the developed tool.
If data of observed daily sequences, or reference meteorological years are available, they should be used to have a
better accuracy in optimum tilt angle estimation.
In this tool, correlation of Collares Pereira and Rabl
(Due and Beckman, 2006) is utilized to calculate the
hourly insolation values from the average daily insolation
levels on horizontal surfaces. Then correlation proposed
by Erbs is used to separate the hourly diuse radiation
from the beam component on a horizontal surface. Finally,
the HDKR anisotropic sky model (Due and Beckman,
2006) is employed to estimate the insolation level received
on a tilted surface for dierent latitudes and for any desired
installation angle. Later in this paper, few simple modications to this model are proposed and applied in order to
make it compatible with urban applications.
2.1. Basic equations
Following correlation from Due and Beckman (2006)
is used to nd out the hourly insolation values (Ih) (for each
hour of the average day of the month) from the daily insolation levels (on horizontal surfaces) (Hh) as shown by:
p
cos x cos xs
Hh
I h a b cos x
24
sin xs xs cos xs
p
1
a 0:409 0:5016 sin xs
3
p
b 0:6609 0:4767 sin xs
3
1922
>
Ih
16:638k 3 12:336k 4
>
>
:
0:165
for k > 0:8
5
Knowing the amount of hourly diuse and beam radiations
on a horizontal plane, it is possible to nd out the hourly
total insolation levels on a tilted plane (IT) using the
HDKR model. This model accounts for dierent type of
radiation including beam (IT,b), diuse (IT,d) (which
contains parts of the circumsolar diuse (IT,cs), isotropic
diuse (IT,iso) and horizontal brightening (IT,hz) components) and ground reectance (IT,ref) as shown by:
r
I h;b
b
1 A F sky sin3
I h;d
Ih
2
s
1 I h;d
I ex I h I h;d
b
F sky sin3
I h;d
Ih
I ex
2
I T ;Hz
11
I T ;b Rb I h I h;d
I T ;cs 1 K sh
I T I T ;b I T ;d I T ;refl
6
7
10
F sky I h;d
I ex
I h I h;d
Rb I h;d
I ex
I T ;b 1 K sh Rb I h I h;d
14
15
1923
tan a
cos b
Lcos
c
17
18
90
L
180
0
S
-90
E
Fig. 3. Locations of the sky trapped behind a tilted panel for dierent tilt
angles.
1
1
20
40
116:56
20
p
402 202
21
!
24:09
22
1924
Table 1
Comparison of two sky view factors (Fsky) assuming no obstacle around
the panel.
Installation
slope
Proposed Eq.
(16)
Conventional Eq.
(12)
Percentage of
discrepancy
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1.000
0.964
0.928
0.890
0.850
0.806
0.756
0.697
0.622
0.500
1.000
0.992
0.970
0.933
0.883
0.821
0.750
0.671
0.587
0.500
0.00
2.82
4.33
4.60
3.74
1.83
0.76
3.87
5.96
0.00
T sh
60 min
23
F sky 1
where the Tsh is the duration of the time in minutes that the
panel is under the full shade (in that specic hour).
As an instance, based on Fig. 5, for a period of time
between 9:00 and 10:00 in November, Tsh is approximately
30 min and thus the Ksh = 0.50. However, for the time period between 14:00 and 15:00 in October, Tsh is approximately equal to 10 min and thus Ksh = 0.17.
The sky view factor Fsky can be calculated based on Eq.
(16) and the projection of the obstacles to the sky as shown
in Fig. 6. Fsky is not time dependent, however it changes
with the tilt angle of the solar panel.
4
1 X
1
Ai 1 2 0:365 0:897 0:213
p2 i1
p
24
Fig. 6. Blocked portion of the sky for 20 tilted panel installed in the
typical example of Fig. 4.
1925
Table 4
Sky view factors for conditions with and without surrounding buildings.
Without buildings
With buildings
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
1.000
0.964
0.928
0.890
0.850
0.806
0.756
0.697
0.622
0.500
0.884
0.850
0.816
0.780
0.742
0.702
0.654
0.598
0.525
0.405
Installation slope
0
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
Latitude,
1926
Table 2
Monthly average daily insolation levels on horizontal surfaces for latitudes
located on the meridian of 100 west.
Optimum Angle
Insolation (kWh/m2/year)
1400
Month
Latitude
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Angle of Installation,
Beam
Diffuse
Gorund Ref.
Total
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
15
25
35
45
55
5.64
6.48
7.23
7.35
6.70
5.62
5.86
5.74
5.05
5.67
5.62
5.33
3.88
4.75
6.05
6.38
6.77
6.89
6.65
6.69
5.81
5.19
4.39
3.65
3.01
3.60
4.93
6.25
6.51
7.04
7.11
6.30
5.28
4.40
3.17
2.65
1.89
2.62
3.75
5.20
6.00
6.74
6.66
5.74
4.43
3.07
1.76
1.58
0.84
1.74
3.11
4.66
5.53
5.83
5.50
4.65
3.02
1.81
0.99
0.55
55
50
opt
1600
Insolation (Kwh/m2/year)
1400
Optimum Angle
1200
1000
800
45
40
35
30
25
20
600
15
400
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
55
Latitude,
200
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Angle of Installation,
Diffuse
Ground Ref.
0.8
Total
Beam
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
10
11
12
Months
Latitude of 15
Latitude of 35
Latitude of 55
Fig. 11. The clearness indexes of latitudes 15, 35, and 55 on the meridian
(100 west).
Insolation (kWh/m2/year)
2000
Optimum Angle
1500
1000
500
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Angle of Installation,
Beam
Diffuse
Ground Ref.
Total
Fig. 12. The contribution of dierent radiation types in total radiation for
U = 15 and real climate condition.
1927
Table 3
Monthly average shading coecients for the shown typical neighborhood.
Time
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
0:001:00
1:002:00
2:003:00
3:004:00
4:005:00
5:006:00
6:007:00
7:008:00
8:009:00
9:0010:00
10:0011:00
11:0012:00
12:0013:00
13:0014:00
14:0015:00
15:0016:00
16:0017:00
17:0018:00
18:0019:00
19:0020:00
20:0021:00
21:0022:00
22:0023:00
23:0024:00
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.54
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.55
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.27
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.28
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.93
1.00
1.00
0.94
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.63
0.64
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.26
1.00
1.00
0.33
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.96
1.00
0.69
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.09
1.00
1.00
0.53
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.92
0.93
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.14
0.15
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.16
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.17
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.47
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.48
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0.62
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
0.63
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1928
op2
Beam
1
Diffuse1
op1
Insoltion ( kWh/m2/year)
1400
Gound Ref.1
Total
1200
Beam
1000
Diffuse2
Ground Ref.
Total2
800
600
400
200
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
Angle of Installation,
Fig. 13. Eect of the obstacles on optimum tilt angle for U = 45 and
meridian of 100 west.