article · Scientific Reports
Mathematical simulations and experimental testing have established optimal tilt angles for photovoltaic panels to maximise solar radiation capture in Egypt. While altering panel angles daily yields the highest solar energy harvest, the approach is impractical and costly. Adjusting panel angles twice a year to specific calculated angles of 5 degrees and 50 degrees for Suez provides results within 1.56 percent of daily tracking. This biannual adjustment delivers 7.77 percent more solar radiation than using a single fixed yearly angle of 28 degrees, which aligns closely with the latitude of Suez at 30 degrees. This specific two-angle approach also outperforms the conventional rule of thumb that simply adds or subtracts 15 degrees from local latitude for winter and summer. Physical tests using two solar installations confirmed the accuracy of the mathematical predictions.
Maximising energy capture from solar installations often requires complex and costly motorised tracking equipment. Demonstrating that manual, twice-yearly adjustments can achieve performance within two percent of daily tracking offers an affordable, low-maintenance way to improve solar yield. This approach delivers meaningful efficiency gains for solar operators without requiring expensive mechanical systems.
This work is applied and tested through physical solar panel installations in Suez. The findings are directly relevant to solar farm developers, facility managers, and engineering contractors designing ground-mounted photovoltaic systems in Egypt and similar latitudes. Implementing these specific twice-yearly tilt schedules offers a near-market, low-cost operational procedure that boosts energy generation over fixed-mount systems without the high capital and maintenance expenses of automated tracking infrastructure.
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The principal target of this work is to compute the optimal tilt angle (OTA) for Photovoltaic (PV) panels. To perform this task, comprehensive simulations are done starting from altering the tilt angle (TA) daily, to use one fixed TA for all the year. The mathematical models for extra-terrestrial radiation (ETR) of both horizontal and inclined surfaces are presented firstly. At a later stage, the optimization formulation for the maximizing the solar radiation (SR) is adapted, and then the daily, monthly, seasonally, half-yearly and optimal fixed TAs are obtained. Although, the daily OTA produces the maximum SR, it is costly and impractical. It is found that altering the TA twice a year at optimal values that are computed as 5° and 50° for Suez city, gives the best results that are very near to the daily altering of the OTA. The difference between the two methods is 1.56% which is very small. Also, the two OTAs has SR better than that of the fixed OTA which is 28° by 7.77%. Also, it is found that the yearly fixed OTA (28°) is nearly equal to the latitude angle of Suez city which is 30°. The two OTAs method of this paper is different from the commonly used method that suggests two TAs. The first TA is used for winter months which is obtained by adding 15° to the latitude angle while the second TA is obtained by subtracting 15° from the latitude angle for the summer months. This commonly used method produces lesser SR than the two OTAs method of this paper. The theoretical work has been proved by an experimental work on two PV systems constructed at 25° and 30° TAs. The results of the experimental work agree with the theoretical results.
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DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-30375-8
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