Optimization of Solar Panel Tilt and Azimuth Angle for Maximum Solar Irradiation and Minimum Loss for Rural Electrification

Abstract: The earth receives solar power at a rate of 120 petawatts, meaning that the energy obtained from the sun in a single day could satisfy the world’s energy needs for almost twenty years. Africa is often considered and referred as the "Sun continent" or the continent where the Sun's influence is the greatest, yet over 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa live without electricity. This inexhaustible, untapped, abundant, and environmentally friendly solar energy potential encouraged solar power generation technologies to flourish faster than any other renewable energy technology most especially in Africa. The amount of electricity generated by a fixed-tilt solar PV system depends on the orientation of the PV panel (tilt and azimuth angle) relative to the sun. The panel of a solar PV system collect solar radiation more efficiently when the sun's rays are perpendicular to the panel: when the sun hits it directly at a 90o degree angle; but the sun is a moving target. Not only does it move across the sky throughout the day, but it is higher in the sky in the dry season (winter) from October to March and lower in the sky in the wet season (summer) from April to September. Since the climate is usually characterized into two seasons, the system optimization presented in this paper was carried out based on: yearly irradiation yield (fixed tilted plane) to guarantee optimum solar irradiation throughout the year, with 0.0% loss with respect to optimum. The system eliminates the challenges associated with changing the solar panel orientation every season, or using the expensive and inefficient sun tracker in tracking sun energy; while guaranteeing higher energy production, better system performance, lower system losses, and low operational cost. The system optimization was carried out with the “PVsyst simulation software” made for PV system designers and researchers to predict the performance of different solar system configurations, evaluate the results, and identify the best approach for maximum energy production. This paper investigated the optimal tilt and azimuth angle for solar panel orientation techniques for a typical rural community in Nigeria (Ndikelionwu) to advance rural electrification. After series of simulation and optimization processes; the best yearly irradiation yield was recorded when the solar panel is at 40o tilt and 0o Azimuth angle; with 0.0% loss with respect to optimum. Keywords: Optimization, PVsyst, Solar Irradiation, Tilt and Azimuth Angle, Global on Collector Plane, Fixed Tilted Plane, Rural Electrification, Solar Panel Orientation And Yearly Irradiation Yield.