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Averaging Seasonal Tilt Adjustments
• A fixed solar panel adjusted for a
specific season is typically tilted to
an angle which is less than the
maximum 23.5° solar declination
angle.
• It has been determined that the best
solar panel tilt for summer and
winter solar altitudes are -15° and
+15° respectively from the latitude
angle.
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Averaging Seasonal Tilt Adjustments
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Magnetic Declination Description
• The variation in degrees which is
created by Earth's molten metal core
and the true north which is the
geographical axis of the Earth.
• Magnetic south (compass) and true
south (solar) deviate depending on
the location. The difference in both
is called magnetic declination. Solar
systems should be aligned with true
south.
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Sun Charts
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Tilt Angle Calculation
• To find the altitude angle α at any day use
the following formula:
• where: lat is the value (in degrees) of
latitude of the installation site of the panels;
• δ is the angle of solar declination [23.45° in
summer, -23.45° in winter, 0° in spring &
autumn]
• Tilt angle (β) = the complementary angle of
α or β= (90°-α)
• For the fixed panels, the optimum tilt angle
= the latitude of the site.
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Tilt Angle Calculation
• To find the tilt angle β at a specific
time of any site use the Sun Charts
of the site
• Ex: For a PV array to directly face
the sun at 11 AM solar time on
June 21st at 30⁰N latitude, at what
tilt and azimuth angles should the
modules be mounted?
• altitude angle α = 76⁰
• tilt angle β= 90⁰ - 76⁰ = 14⁰
• azimuth angle γ= 63⁰E
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Tilt Angle Calculation
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Solar resource data
• Global Horizontal Irradiation/Irradiance (GHI): The sum of direct and diffuse
radiation received on a horizontal level.
• Global Tilted Irradiation/Irradiance (GTI): This is the total radiation received on a
surface , fixed one with sun-tracking. sum of the scattered radiation, direct and
reflected.
• Using the below given tool, it is possible to obtain directly the GTI measured in
kWh/m²/year starting from the GHI measured in kWh/m²/ year.
• For worldwide irradiation dataset, a reference tool is RETScreen
[Link]
[Link]
• GLOBAL SOLAR ATLAS [Link]
• PVwatts [Link]
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GLOBAL SOLAR ATLAS
• [Link]
• The aim of Global Solar Atlas is to give you a quick and easy access to solar
resources and photovoltaic power potential data globally, at a single click of a
mouse
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Inclinometer
• An inclinometer is a device that measures
angles, such as the angle of a roof or a
solar panel
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• Assessment of a Small-Scale Solar PV
System in the KSA
Small variations around these values do not significantly affect the production. For instance,
an energy reduction not greater than 5% can be noticed by maintaining a South orientation
and varying the tilt from 5° (this value to be raised to 10° to allow a better cleaning) to 40°. It is
also possible to stay below a 5% loss by varying the azimuth of the PV modules from -60° to
+60°, if the tilt is kept at 24°.