Improvement and validation of diffuse irradiance shading models

In large-scale PV systems, row-to-row shading can impact the incident irradiance from the sky and ground diffuse irradiance components. View factor methods to predict diffuse shading losses rely on an isotropic diffuse assumption. In contrast, numerical integration methods can accommodate anisotropic diffuse distributions by integrating over all visible points of the sky dome. We expand existing numerical integration methods to encompass ground-reflected diffuse shading and discuss experimental measurements of diffuse shading for two tracking systems in Henderson, Nevada, and Boulder, Colorado.