Tilted Surfaces

Tilted Surfaces Irradiances¶

For a data request of "Solar Irradiance for Equator Facing Tilted Surfaces", via the POWER API the following are computed; solar irradiance for the angle equal to the absolute latitude of the location, ±15° of the absolute value of latitude, horizontal, vertical, and optimally tilted panels. The optimal tilt angle for a given month is the tilt angle when the monthly average irradiance for the month attains the maximum.

POWER provides the solar irradiances for Equator facing set of tilted surfaces with the functions above applied at a specific point location.

Input Parameters¶

The POWER API computes the set of surfaces using the same climatological monthly average. The POWER API recursively runs through the months and required parameters to create the final output using the following inputs.

Output Parameters¶

The surfaces are computed by the Tilt Value Equation that creates a solar irradiance value for a specific point location and tilt angle. This equation is called by the optimal value equation that is used in producing the set of surfaces. The surfaces are angle equal to the latitude of the location and plus, minus 15 degrees of the latitude in addition to horizontal and vertical panes.

Irradiances are computed for surfaces tilted toward the Equator at the following angles:

1. horizontal panel (tilt angle = 0°)
2. tilt angle equal to abs(latitude)
3. tilt angle equal to abs(latitude)+15°
4. tilt angle equal to abs(latitude)-15°
5. vertical panel (tilt angle = 90°)

Below is the table of the individual parameters computed:

Validation¶