Journal article
Reconsidering beam and diffuse solar fractions for agrivoltaics
Solar energy, v 237, pp 135-143
01 May 2022
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
The concept behind agrivoltaics, the use of photovoltaics (PV) with agriculture to simultaneously produce electric power and food, was first introduced by Goetzberger and Zastrow (1982) (GZ), who developed models for shading effects of fixed, opaque, monofacial PV panels on beam and diffuse solar radiation reaching the ground. This article has been cited by many since 2000. However, since then nearly all authors of related papers that cited GZ have not adopted the GZ models. Instead, ray-tracing and other methods have been used in custom computer codes. The reasons might be rooted in limitations of GZ assumptions or the need for algorithms to accommodate individual experiments and systems. Another may be lack of a complete expression for a key angle in the shadowing problem and an integral expression for diffuse solar fraction that produces suspicious results in GZ. In this work we provide a simpler, complete, and validated model for the diffuse solar fraction, add insight into the interactions between a panel and its neighbors, and the number of PV panels needed through shadowing to reach an asymptotic value. By normalizing the problem, plots of diffuse and beam solar fractions are enabled that form the basis of simple tools useful for first-order estimates in design. A design case study is presented against which results of the current work are favorably compared.
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•Diffuse & beam solar fractions for stationary photovoltaic (PV) array considered•A complete and validated model for diffuse solar fraction at ground presented•Interactions with PV panel and neighbors show 20 neighboring PVs needed in model•Diffuse solar fraction is practically independent of PV panel support height•Polynomials of diffuse solar fraction depends only on panel height/spacing and panel slope•Normalization enables simple design tool plots for diffuse and beam solar fractions
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Details
- Title
- Reconsidering beam and diffuse solar fractions for agrivoltaics
- Creators
- G.F. Jones - Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova PA 19085, USAM.E. Evans - RMS Division, Lockheed Martin Corp., 199 Borton Landing Road, Moorestown NJ 08057, USAF.R. Shapiro - Drexel University
- Publication Details
- Solar energy, v 237, pp 135-143
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Engineering Technology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000805970000003
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85127470655
- Other Identifier
- 991019169565704721
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- Collaboration types
- Industry collaboration
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Energy & Fuels