Angle Of Incidence On Solar Panel

Whether you are installing a solar panel on a flat roof or a pitched roof the output of the solar pv system would be increased by optimizing the tilt angle.

Angle of incidence on solar panel.

Welcome to another entry in our ongoing solar 101 series. This is the angle between the line that points to the sun and the angle that points straight out of a pv panel also called the line that is normal to the surface of the panel. At this level the solar panel can lie flat on the roof and get enough sunlight to produce enough electricity. The angle of incidence θ of the sun on a surface tilted at an angle from the horizontal β and with any surface azimuth angle a zs figure 3 2 can be calculated from when a zs is measured clockwise from north.

3 11 this horrible equation can be simplified in a number of instances. Similarly when the surface is parallel to the sun s rays the incident angle is 90 and because cos 90 0 the surface absorbs no irradiance. Solar panels are most efficient when pointing at the sun so engineers want to minimize this angle at all times. Elevation angle and azimuth angle commonly shortened to angle and azimuth for brevity.

In order to collect energy more efficiently solar panels should be angled to face as close to the sun as possible. Photovoltaics produce power when the angle at which the sun s rays hit the panel surface the angle of incidence is small or when light strikes the panel as close to perpendicular as possible. This is the most important angle. The angle of incidence is the angle between the vector s in the direction of the sun and the normal vector n perpendicular to the surface.

The vertical tilt of your panels. The position of the sun has been defined in spherical coordinates and thus must be transformed into cartesian coordinates with the base vectors north west and zenith for further calculations. The optimum angle varies throughout the year depending on the seasons and your location and this calculator shows the difference in sun height on a month by month. Most roofs have an inclination of 30 to 40 degrees.

Today we re going to explain how to mount your solar panels to get the most energy from them. In the above example cos 15 966 and so the surface is absorbing 96 6 of the available solar power. Let s start with two key terms. You will most likely be installing the solar panels on your roof which is why you have to take into account the roof pitch too.

This solar angle calculator tells you the optimum angle to get the best out of your system. The array s tilt is the angle in degrees from horizontal.