Handling Tilt in Orientation and Near Shading Scene in PVSyst for Undulating Terrain

[Andrés Fernández]

Hello everyone,

I'm working on a PVSyst project where the terrain is undulating, which makes it challenging to define the tilt of the modules properly (for Orientation and near shading scene).

I've attached an example image to illustrate the case better. Any advice or references would be greatly appreciated.

https://waareeimages.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/energy_of_the_sun_and_convert_it_into_electricity_5a25f22d3d.jpg

Thanks in advance!

[dtarin]

PVsyst should calculate this automatically. 

[Muhammed Sarikaya]

Dear Andrés,

You can use the "Zone Tool" — see below how to access it:

Then, you can draw a zone where you place PV tables that follow the topography.

Regards,

[Andrés Fernández]

Got it, I understand this would be done in the near shadings scene.

My question was more about whether the plane-of-array irradiance was correctly estimated, considering that both the tilt and the base slope vary.

Would the standard practice in this case be to define multiple orientations? That is, grouping different arrays based on their real tilt and real azimuth?

Thanks for the support.

[Muhammed Sarikaya]

Dear Andrés,

I suggest grouping your PV array based on the electrical layout you have planned with the inverters.

It can add complexity to your project, so if you have a varying base slope, it's better to use a single orientation. PVsyst has implemented a new tool to estimate the percentage of losses due to slope variation.

Go to the Near Shadings > "Orientation Management", then click on the "Orientation Distribution Analysis" tab. Choose the plot type "Base slope deviation, absolute errors". In my example below, you can see a loss of -0.02% due to averaging the base slope into one orientation:

Regards,