Special Issue of International J ournal of Sustainable Development and Green Economics (IJ SDGE), ISSN No.

: 2315-4721, V-2, I-1, 2, 2013

85
OPTIMAL SLOPE ANGLES FOR SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS
FOR MAXIMUM SOLAR ENERGY GAIN

PRIYA YADAV
1
& S. S. CHANDEL
2


1,2
Centre for Energy and Environment, National Institute of Technology, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh-177005, India

Abstract- In this study, a mathematical model is used to determine the solar radiation incident on a inclined surface and the
optimum slope angles for each month, season and year are calculated for solar photovoltaic panels at NIT Hamirpur,
Himachal Pradesh, India. It is found that the optimumslope angles are found to be between 0
0
(J une) and 56
0
(December)
throughout the year. In winter the optimumslope angle is 53
0
, in spring 30.6
0
, in summer 0
0
, and in autumn 24.6
0
. The yearly
average tilt angle is found to be 27.1
0
for the location. The maximum solar energy gain is 11% found at monthly optimum
tilt angles in comparison to horizontal surface and 5% in comparison to yearly optimumtilt.

Keywords- Optimum tilt angle, Solar photovoltaic, Solar Radiation, Extraterrestrial Radiation, Clearness index,.


I. INTRODUCTION

Solar energy is a vast inexhaustible source of energy.
And can meet all the energy requirements on earth,
if utilised efficiently. As the earth keeps revolving
around the sun as well as on its own axis, the
intensity of solar radiation varies throughout the day
and year. So in order to collect maximum solar
energy, it is important to determine the correct
orientation and slope of the solar photovoltaic (PV)
panels. This problem can be solved by tracking the
sun daily throughout the year. But tracking devices
are not economically viable for small scale power
systems. The output of PV systems can be increased
by using monthly and seasonal tracking manually.
For this purpose the optimum tilt angle for each
month of the year has to be determined. The
orientation of the collectors has to be towards equator
for maximum solar radiation gain i.e. in the northern
hemisphere the PV panels are to be installed facing
true south and in southern hemisphere these should be
facing true north.

Solar radiation data is generally measured by the
horizontal pyranometer in the form of global
radiation. Solar collectors are adjusted at an optimum
tilt angle so that they capture maximum sunlight. The
tilt angle is defined as the angle which the solar
collectors make with horizontal surface to maximize
the collected energy and the collector output.

Tilt angle greatly influences the performance of solar
PV panels. Maximum output can be obtained by solar
collectors if they are installed at an optimum tilt. Tilt
angle of a collector depends on geographical
conditions, day of the year and latitude of a place.
Therefore different places will have different tilt
angles for different seasons. A lot of research work
has been done in this area. Various researchers have
presented different models for calculation of optimum
tilt angle. The main difference lies in the calculation


of diffused radiation which depends on the clearness
index. It was concluded that
opt
=-, where is
latitude angle of a particular location and is the
declination angle of that place at a particular time of
the year. Different recommendations have been made
by a number of researchers for choosing the optimum
tilt angle depending on latitude of a place [1], [2].
Heywood, Lunde and Garge concluded that
opt
=
15
0
[2], [3], [4]. Duffie & Beckman suggested that

opt
= (+15
0
) 15
0
[5]. For simplification, the
optimum tilt angle is generally taken equal to the
latitude of the location at which the collectors are to
be installed [6] ,[7] ,[8]. Palvic concluded that to
obtain maximum solar radiation, the solar panels
should be installed facing true south [9]. In this paper
the monthly, seasonally and yearly optimum tilt
angles for solar PV systems installed at Centre for
Energy & Environment, National Institute of
Technology [NIT] Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh,
India, are determined. A computer program in
MATLAB software is developed for this purpose.
The collected energy is simulated as the tilt angle is
varied. The hourly global radiation data recorded at
the automatic data acquisition system installed at the
Centre for Energy & Environment at NIT is obtained.
This data is then averaged to get the monthly average
daily global radiation on horizontal surface. The
monthly average daily global radiation on tilted
surface is estimated using mathematical calculations.
The optimum tilt angle for each month is determined
by looking for the values on which the global
radiation is maximum for a particular day of the
month.

II. SOLAR RADIATION BASICS

Extraterrestrial radiation is the solar radiation outside
earths surface. Its intensity varies throughout the
year so an average constant value of S
0
=1367 W/m
2

Optimal Slope Angles for Solar Photovoltaic Panels for MaximumSolar Energy Gain
Special Issue of International J ournal of Sustainable Development and Green Economics (IJ SDGE), ISSN No.: 2315-4721, V-2, I-1, 2, 2013
86
is taken. Variation in solar constant over the time of
the year is given by the equation:

Where is the sunshine hour angle of the month in
consideration.

The polar axis of earth is inclined by an angle of
66.55
0
to the elliptical plane and by 23.45
0
from
perpendicular to elliptical plane. The rotation of earth
on its inclined polar axis with respect to elliptic plane
is responsible for different seasons on earth. It causes
lengthy days in summer and shorter days in winter.

The angle made by the lines joining the centre of the
earth to centre of the sun with its projection on the
equatorial plane of the earth is called declination
angle. It varies due to the inclination of earths polar
axis and its revolution around the sun. it varies
between -23.45
0
to 23.45
0
. The formula for
declination angle is given by:



Where n is the n
th
day of the year.


Fig. 1 Definition of solar angles [10]

A. Global, beam and diffused irradiance:
The incident radiation which reaches the earths
surface without being absorbed or scattered is called
beam radiation. Some of the radiation from the sun is
scattered back to the atmosphere and some of it is
scattered to earth, this scattered radiation reaching the
earths surface is called diffused radiation. When the
solar radiation reaches the earths surface, some of it
is reflected by the ground and other objects on ground.
This radiation is called reflected radiation. The global
radiation is the sum of beam, diffused and reflected
radiations.
B. Calculation of clearness index:
The monthly-average clearness index K
T
is the ratio
of the monthly average daily radiation on a horizontal
surface (H
g
) to the monthly average daily
extraterrestrial radiation (H
o
) that is [5]:

The clearness index, K
T
gives a measure of the
atmospheric effects at a place on the solar insolation.
However, the clearness index is a stochastic
parameter, which is a function of time of year, season,
climatic condition and geographic location [11].

Knowing the value of the clearness index; we can
calculate the diffuse component, H
d
as follows [12]:



III. MODELING

As the data available is in the form of global radiation
on horizontal surface, we need to determine the solar
radiation at tilted surface. For this correlation
procedures are required. The solar radiation on tilted
plane is taken as the combination of direct beam,
diffused and reflected components of global radiation
[13]:

Where R
b
is the ratio of the average beam radiation
on the tilted surface to that on a horizontal surface. It
is a function of the transmittance of the atmosphere,
which depends upon the atmosphere cloudiness,
water vapour, particulate concentration [13].

Optimal Slope Angles for Solar Photovoltaic Panels for MaximumSolar Energy Gain
Special Issue of International J ournal of Sustainable Development and Green Economics (IJ SDGE), ISSN No.: 2315-4721, V-2, I-1, 2, 2013
87
is the reflectivity of ground surface. H
B
, H
D
& H
R

are beam, diffused and reflected radiations
respectively on tilted surface. The value of is
generally taken as 0.2.

IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The monthly average daily extraterrestrial radiation is
calculated using eq. (2) and the beam and diffused
components of global radiation are calculated from
equations (8) and (9). It is found that the diffused
component is greater than beam component in winter
months whereas beam component is higher in
summer months as shown in fig.3.


Fig. 2 Monthly average daily global radiation (Hg) and monthly
average daily extra-terrestrial radiation (Ho) on a horizontal
surface

To maximize the solar radiation on a collector, the
collector needs to be mounted at an optimum tilt
angle. This tilt angle is calculated using equations
given in modelling section. The tilt angle is varied
in steps of 1
0
and the angle for which monthly
average daily solar radiation is maximum, is taken to
be the optimum tilt angle for that month.

The variation of solar radiation with tilt angle from 0
0

to 90
0
for twelve months of the year is shown in Fig.
4 and Fig. 5.

The peaks of these curves correspond to maximum
solar radiation at optimum tilt angle for each month
of the year.


Fig. 3 Monthly average daily global radiation (Hg), beam
radiation (Hb) and diffuse radiation (Hd) on a horizontal
surface at Hamirpur (H.P.), India
The optimum tilt angle for each month is calculated.
Then average optimum tilt angles are calculated for
four seasons of the year. Yearly optimum tilt angle is
calculated by averaging the monthly optimum tilt
angles over the year.

Fig. 4 Monthly average daily total solar radiation (in
kWh/m
2
/day) on a south facing panel in Hamirpur (HP), India
for the months of January-June

The seasonal average is calculated by finding the
average value of the tilt angle for each season, and for
its implementation, the panel tilt be has to be changed
four times a year. It is found that in winter
(November, December & January) the tilt is 53
0
, in
spring (February, March & April) 30.6
0
, in summer
(May, June & July) 0
0
, and in autumn (August,
September & October) 24.6
0
. The yearly average tilt
is calculated by finding the average value of the tilt
angle for all months of the year


Fig. 5 Monthly average daily total solar radiation (in
kWh/m
2
/day) on a south facing panel in Hamirpur for the
months of July-December

Monthly, seasonal and yearly optimum tilt angles are
plotted against the months of a year in Fig. 6.
0
2
4
6
8
10
k
W
h
/
m
2
/
d
a
y
Hg
Ho
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Jan Mar May Jul Sep Nov
k
W
h
/
m
2
/
d
a
y
Hg
Hd
Hb
Optimal Slope Angles for Solar Photovoltaic Panels for MaximumSolar Energy Gain
Special Issue of International J ournal of Sustainable Development and Green Economics (IJ SDGE), ISSN No.: 2315-4721, V-2, I-1, 2, 2013
88

Fig. 6 Optimum monthly average, seasonal average, and yearly
average tilt angles for each month of the year
.
The yearly average of these values is found to be
27.1
0
and this indicates an optimum fixed tilt
throughout a year. Fig. 7 shows the monthly average
solar energy collected throughout the year when the
angle of tilt is optimum for each month, and when the
seasonal and yearly average slope angles are used.

Table I and Table II show the monthly average daily
global solar radiation on monthly, seasonal and yearly
optimum tilt angles.

The yearly collected solar energy when solar
radiation fall on horizontal surface is measured to be
1572 kWh/m
2
. The yearly collected solar energy is
found to be 1766 kWh/m
2
for collectors mounted at
monthly optimum tilt, 1753 kWh/m
2
for seasonal
optimum tilt and 1678 kWh/m
2
for yearly average tilt
angles.

TABLE I
Monthly Optimum Tilt Angle
opt
and collected
energy for a South facing Solar PV array at Hamirpur
(HP), India
Month
opt
(
0
)
H
T

(kWh/m
2
/day)
January 51 3.50
February 42 3.95
March 33 5.55
April 17 5.70
May 0 6.32
June 0 5.93
July 0 4.29
August 8 3.75
September 25 4.57
October 41 5.28
November 52 4.80
December 56 4.45
TABLE III
Seasonal and yearly average tilt angles and monthly
daily solar radiation on south-facing sloped surface at
Hamirpur,H. P., India
Mo
nth
Seas
ons
Seasonal
Average

Yearly
Average


(
0
)
HT
(kWh/m
2
/day)

(
0
)
HT
(kWh/m
2
/day)
Nov
Wint
er
53
0

3.49
27.
1
0

3.30
Dec 3.90 3.87
Jan 5.55 5.53
Feb
Sprin
g
30.
6
0

5.56 5.62
Mar 6.32 5.83
Apr 5.93 5.22
May
Sum
mer
0
0

4.29 3.93
Jun 3.65 3.62
Jul 4.57 4.57
Aug
Autu
mn
24.
6
0

5.13 5.17
Sep 4.79 4.48
Oct 4.45 4.06

It is deduced from Table 2 that the loss in the amount
of collected energy is less than 1% (0.78 %) if the
angle of tilt is adjusted seasonally instead of using

opt
for each month of the year at Hamirpur. The loss
of energy when using the yearly average fixed tilt
angle is around 5% compared with the monthly
optimum tilt. The loss in energy was found to be 11%
when no tilt was used compared with optimum tilt.


Fig. 7 Global radiation on tilted plane for monthly, seasonal
and yearly average tilt angle
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
J
a
n
A
p
r
J
u
l
O
c
t
t
i
l
t

a
n
g
l
e

(
i
n

d
e
g
r
e
e
s
)
opt tilt
(monthly)
opt tilt
(seasonal)
opt tilt
(yearly)
Ja
n
Fe
b
M
ar
Ap
r
M
ay
Ju
n
Jul
Au
g
Se
p
Oc
t
No
v
De
c
Ht
(monthly)
3 4 6 6 6 6 4 4 5 5 5 4
Ht (yearly) 3 4 6 6 6 5 4 4 5 5 4 4
Ht
(seasonal)
3 4 6 6 6 6 4 4 5 5 5 4
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
G
l
o
b
a
l

R
a
d
i
a
t
i
o
n

(
k
W
h
/
m
2
/
d
a
y
)
Optimal Slope Angles for Solar Photovoltaic Panels for MaximumSolar Energy Gain
Special Issue of International J ournal of Sustainable Development and Green Economics (IJ SDGE), ISSN No.: 2315-4721, V-2, I-1, 2, 2013
89
V. CONCLUSION

The methodology to determine slope angles for solar
photovoltaic panels has been described with case
study of Hamirpur, HP , India location , however it
can be used for any location world wide . The main
conclusions are as follows :

1. The optimum tilt angle for this location is found to
be 56
0
in December and 0
0
in May, June & July i.e.
minimum in summers and maximum in winters. The
yearly average optimum tilt angle is 27.1
0
and for
different seasons i.e. for summer 0
0
, autumn 24.6
0
,
winter 53
0
and for spring 30.6
0
.
2. The gain in energy is found to be 11% when
monthly optimum tilt is used as compared to a
horizontal surface and 5% when compared to yearly
average tilt. The yearly collected solar energy with
yearly average tilt is 1678 kWh/m
2
. It is 1753
kWh/m
2
with seasonally adjusted tilt angle and 1766
kWh/m
2
for monthly optimum tilt
3. For maximum solar energy gain ,the solar
photovoltaic panels are to be inclined at optimal tilt
angles for each location. The monthly, seasonal
adjustment of Solar panel leads to considerable gain
in Solar energy which will also lead to reduction in
Solar Power Plant cost.

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