access icon free Estimation of solar radiation on PV panel surface with optimum tilt angle using vortex search algorithm

The amount of solar energy incidence on a photovoltaic (PV) panel depends on the PV tilt angles with respect to the horizon. It is thus crucial to investigate the optimum tilt angles to maximise the efficiency of PV panels and at the same time to increase the performance of solar energy systems. The objective of this study is to estimate the optimum tilt angle for PV panels in order to collect the maximum solar radiation for the city of Dhahran in Saudi Arabia. A newly developed optimisation algorithm called the vortex search algorithm is used to estimate the solar radiation on the tilted surface. Moreover, one year can be divided into different periods in the proposed approach, and the optimum angle can be obtained for each one of these periods separately. The horizontal solar data (i.e. direct, diffuse and global solar radiation) is used to estimate the optimum tilt angle. The results demonstrate that the solar radiation estimated using the optimum tilt angle is maximised compared with the one estimated on a horizontal surface.

Inspec keywords: solar cell arrays; solar power; optimisation; search problems

Other keywords: optimisation algorithm; solar energy; optimum tilt angle estimation; PV panel surface; photovoltaic panel; Dhahran city; solar radiation estimation; Saudi Arabia; horizontal solar data; vortex search algorithm

Subjects: Solar cells and arrays; Optimisation techniques; Photoelectric conversion; solar cells and arrays; Solar energy; Combinatorial mathematics

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