Using validated reanalysis data to investigate the impact of the PV system configurations at high penetration levels in European countries

Long-term hourly time series representing the photovoltaic (PV) generation in European countries have been obtained and made available under open license. For every country, four different PV configurations, ie, rooftop, optimum tilt, tracking, and delta have been investigated. These are shown to have a strong influence on the hourly difference between electricity demand and PV generation. To obtain PV time series, irradiance from CFSR reanalysis dataset is converted into electricity generation and aggregated at country level. Prior to conversion, reanalysis irradiance is bias corrected using satellite-based SARAH dataset and a globally applicable methodology. Moreover, a novel procedure is proposed to infer the orientation and inclination angles representative for PV panels based on the historical PV output throughout the days around summer and winter solstices. A key strength of the methodology is that it does not rely on historical PV output data. Consequently, it can be applied in places with no existing knowledge of PV performance.