PV model, Winter Months, Higher Latitudes

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am kindly writing to ask about the behavior of PV output during winter months at higher latitudes.

During winter months, for FIXED SYSTEMS, I have identified that after tilts of about 30°, the capacity factor diminishes in a convex trend, increasing its values towards 90°. In TRACKING SYSTEMS, this behavior is not happening.

The attached picture shows this behavior in a polar surface in which the length of the radius indicates the tilt and the circumference indicates the azimuth.

My question is which could be the reason why there is that convex phenomenon in the tilt and azimuth from tilt=30 to tilt=90?

Thanks in advance for your response

Hi Gloria,

You might investigate further by exploring the time series (hourly or subhourly) results to see what is causing the capacity factor to behave in that way. Useful outputs to examine are Subarray 1 surface tilt, Subarray 1 surface azimuth, and for one-axis tracking, Subarray 1 Axis rotation for 1 axis tracking.

Best regards,
Paul.