Effect of fixed and seasonal tilt angles on the performance of an ON-Grid PV plant

Worldwide, all the countries are moving towards renewable energy sources to cater their energy demands. For Pakistan, solar energy is one of the best options among renewable energy resources and is free from air pollution and fuel usage. The main objective of present study is the performance comparative analysis of 1MW grid-connected PV power plant for Silver star industry at Sialkot (Longitude 74.42* E & Latitude 32.36* N) using fixed angle and seasonal tilt angle technology. The average solar radiation at plant site is 4.55 kWh/m2/day and the average annual temperature is 25.18 °C. The actual measured results of the PV power plant are compared with the results acquired by doing simulations at fixed angle and at seasonal tilt angles using PV syst software. The PV plant is installed at fixed angle 30° and the optimal seasonal tilt angles found by doing simulations are 14° and 46°. From the comparative study, it is observed that 5.28% energy generation is increased by using seasonal tilt angles as compared to actual PV plant energy generation. Moreover, the performance parameters including final yield, performance ratio and capacity utilization factor increases to 4.6%, 1.6% and 5.3% respectively, by using seasonal tilt angle as compared to actual fixed angle of the PV plant. The comparative results indicated that the seasonal tilt angle can play a significant role in improving the performance of On-Grid PV plant.