Determination of the optimum tilt-angles for solar panels in Indian climates: A new approach

Though there are available many conventional energy sources, environmental pollution due the use of fossil fuels is a big restriction. Among all non-conventional energy sources, solar energy is a strong contender. In order to achieve maximum solar energy on tilted surfaces, the tilt angle is considered an important parameter. In this research article a new model based on the MacCormach explicit finite difference technique is used to predict the optimum tilt angle of solar panels facing due south in India. For the purpose of analysis 23 Indian locations between 8.3 degrees N - 34.8 degrees N with diverse climatic conditions are selected. The monthly, seasonal, and annual values of optimum tilt angles are needed to be estimated since they can significantly affect the amount of collected energy on a solar panel. The estimated monthly optimum tilt angles are compared with those from other researchers. The estimated solar energies on the basis of monthly, seasonal and annual tilt angles are 26.57 MJ/m2/day for Bangalore in the month of February, 74.02 MJ/m2/ season for Goa in season I (February, March & April) and 252.05 MJ/m2/year for Goa. Maximum percentage increments of 4.35% for Sri Nagar in August, 7.6% for Srinagar in Season II and 2.86% for Sri Nagar are compared to other researchers' works. The annual tilt angles for the considered tropical climatic cities lies between 11.4 degrees (Minicoy) to 26.7 degrees (Nagpur). However, for the subtropical and semi-arid cities it lies between 27.8 degrees (Bhavnagar) to 30.7 degrees (Jodhpur).