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Tilt Angle

The sun moves across the sky from east to west. Solar panels are most effective when they are positioned facing the sun at a perpendicular angle at noon. Solar panels are usually placed on a roof or a frame and have a fixed position and cannot follow the movement of the sun along the sky. Therefore they will not face the sun with an optimal (90 degrees) angle all day. The angle between the horizontal plane and the solar panel is called the tilt angle.

Due to motion of the earth round the sun there are also seasonal variations. In the winter the sun will not reach the same angle as in summer. Ideally, in the summer solar panels should be placed somewhat more horizontal, to benefit most from the sun high in the sky. However these panels will then not be placed optimally for the winter sun. To achieve the best year round performance solar panels should be installed at a fixed angle, which lies somewhere between the optimum angle for summer and for winter. For each latitude there is an optimum tilt angle. Only near to the equator the solar panels should be placed horizontally.

Optimum tilt angle in winter and summer time

1. winter sun  2. summer sun

Small deviations of about 5 degrees to this optimum tilt angle only have a minor effect on the electricity production. The differences due to weather conditions in the electricity production are more important. For stand alone systems, the optimum tilt angle depends on the monthly demand pattern.

Panel Loss Due to Deflection(These losses will apply to all “square to sun” percentages.)

Example

Optimum tilt angle for the Netherlands (latitude 52 degrees north) for a grid connected system: 36 degrees. However, for a stand-alone system with equal energy demand year around, the optimum tilt angle is approximately 65-70 degrees in the Netherlands.

Information from http://www.mysolar.com and other sources were used, hardly edited by our engineers.

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