Title :
Measured vs. ideal insolation on PV structures
Author :
Townsend, Timothy U. ; Whitaker, Charles M.
Author_Institution :
Endecon Eng., San Ramon, CA, USA
fDate :
29 Sep-3 Oct 1997
Abstract :
This paper discusses the relative insolation available at several PVUSA sites for some common PV system orientations. It addresses reasons why the insolation measured on actual systems often falls short of that expected in the original design. Uncontrollable shortfalls in insolation and generation result from normal year-to-year weather variations, from component failures, and from measurement uncertainty. However, there are additional systematic shortfalls in insolation that are to some degree controllable by the system designer
Keywords :
losses; optical variables measurement; solar cell arrays; sunlight; PV structures; PV system orientations; PVUSA sites; component failures; field of view losses; measurement uncertainty; normal year-to-year weather variations; relative insolation; shading losses; soiling; systematic insolation shortfalls; tracking accuracy; uncontrollable insolation shortfalls; Control systems; Costs; Impedance; Instruments; Measurement uncertainty; Mesh generation; Motion control; Tracking;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1997., Conference Record of the Twenty-Sixth IEEE
Conference_Location :
Anaheim, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-3767-0
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1997.654304
