View Factors in Horizontal Plane Fixed-Mode Solar PV Fields

In solar PV fields, solar photovoltaic panels are typically arranged in parallel rows one after the other. This arrangement introduces variations in the distribution of solar irradiance over the entire field, compared to measurements recorded at meteorological weather stations and data obtained from climatic database platforms. This is due to the difference in the view factors between the rows of the solar PV field and a single surface, as well as the presence of shade on rear sides and in the space separating the rows. These phenomena combined will reduce the intensity of solar irradiance incident on the PV solar field; consequently will reduce the energy yields. Accurate estimation of solar radiation on solar fields requires knowledge of the sky, ground, and rear side of the preceding row view factors, and an estimation of the time and space occupied by the row’s shadow. Prior literature has addressed this issue using two-dimensional (2-D) techniques such as the crossed-strings method (CSM). This study developed a novel three-dimensional (3-D) analysis in addition to numerical analysis to determine the view factors associated with solar fields. The study uses both isotropic and anisotropic transposition analyses to determine solar irradiance incident on the solar field with varying tilt angles of solar panels and distance separating the rows (distance aspect ratio) for several latitudes. The present research also tested the validity of the CSM for wide ranges of distance separating rows and length aspect ratios, the obtained results show that the CSM shows good agreements in both sky and ground view factor in the range of length aspect ratio greater than one. But the CSM fails in rear-side view factor in the design ranges of PV solar fields, where the error rate was found about 11%, this result is important in the case of bifacial PV solar systems. Also, the present work compared the solar irradiance calculated for a single surface with that incident on a PV solar field for wide range of sky conditions and latitudes. The obtained results ensure the accuracy of using the solar irradiance incident on a single surface data for low latitudes and for most sky conditions for PV rooftop solar systems as well as PV solar fields. While it has remarked a large error in the case of cloudy skies, where the error rate exceeded 17% in the case of aspect ratio equals to 1.5 and about 15.5% in the aspect ratio of 2.0.