SIMULATION OF AN ENERGY-GENERATING HOME CANOPY USING PHOTOVOLTAIC PANELS WITH MULTIPLE TILT ANGLES

Abstract

Due to the effect of changing the angle of incidence of solar radiation on the surface of the photovoltaic panel in determining the amount of electrical production, the world is heading today to study this effect and work to achieve the optimal position of the panel to increase its efficiency. This includes studying and analyzing the angles of PV panel tilting, taking into consideration the change in the position of the sun (altitude angle). In this article, a system has been designed using MATLAB/SIMULINK software to simulate the work of a home canopy that exploits photovoltaic panels to generate electrical energy. The system is designed to process multiple data at the same time, ten tilt angles of panels are adopted, in addition to taking into account the change in the position of the sun (from 40ᵒ to 80ᵒ) in winter and summer respectively, every second over a whole year. The curves of the proposed model showed that the high solar elevation angle in summer of Iraq (which did not require significant tilting of the panels to obtain vertical radiation (only 10ᵒ-20ᵒ) allows for the benefit of panels installed on a flat surface, at least if the panels cannot be oriented at the required tilt angle. However, flat panels are not effective in the winter due to the need to orient them at a relatively high tilt angle (50ᵒ) to obtain vertical radiation. It is also possible to design a fixed canopy throughout the year with panels tilted at an angle close to the latitude of the station's geographic area, given the relatively high radiation values in Iraq throughout the four seasons. these results show realistic behavior with excellent accuracy, by reaching the required monthly and seasonally tilt angles, which confirm the importance of having accurate models that enable the users to estimate angles and production quantities under different conditions and locations