Tracking benefits for solar collectors installed in Bangalore

The amount of energy that can be extracted from the solar radiation by solar collectors or photovoltaic systems depends mainly on the installation angle of the collector (tilt angle) and the tracking method used to follow the Sun. In this paper, the optimum tilt angle for Bangalore (12 degrees 58') has been calculated under various tracking conditions. For a fixed tilt angle collector facing south, the optimum tilt angle is estimated to be between 15 degrees and 17 degrees and is not very sensitive to radiation data type. Fixed tilt angle collectors and collectors tilted on a monthly basis produced only marginal benefit (<5% and <10%, respectively) compared to horizontal orientation. However, for continuously tracked systems, benefits are as high as 35%. At least three sets of solar radiation data are available for Bangalore from different sources. It has been shown that they have considerable differences in their direct and diffuse content. All these data have been used to quantify tracking benefits to understand their sensitivity. Limited amount of available in-house data indicates higher diffuse fraction in solar radiation than predicted by historic data and satellite models. Hence, the benefits due to tilting are reduced. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3558863]