Ray tracing analysis of linear Fresnel concentrators and the effect of plant azimuth on their optical efficiency

In the present paper, the problem of the determination of yearly insolation and photovoltaic (PV) producibility of a series of selected suburbs located in the city of Genova (region Liguria), Italy is tackled through the GIS based construction of the 3-dimensional built environment and proper modelling of hourly solar energy availability. The input data include local climate conditions, as inferred from local hourly insolation data as 12-year averages of global and diffuse irradiance data from PV-GIS-SARAH platform. The built environment is described in terms of raster files having resolution 0.5m able to provide the 3D coordinates of building volumes, infrastructures and terrain surfaces, as kindly provided by the city of Genova municipality. The solar yield analysis is carried out by building a cumulative 3D tiled sky starting from TMY (typical metereological year) of the present location, taking into account the hourly distribution of beam and diffuse solar radiation all year round. The calculations of the building surface view factors towards the sky elements is performed within the QGIS platform by using python scripts able to calculate the superposition of reflected to direct irradiance while taking into account the mutual position of roof portions and sky dome radiating tiles. The analysis is performed also considering the near and far obstacle shadings (near buildings, far mountains). Statistical processing of selected suburbs rooftop portions showed that up to 60% of building roof are exposed to an yearly insolation above 1200 kWh/m2/yr, thus potentially able to fulfil the expected demand of PV energy of the entire Liguria at the year 2030.

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Ray tracing analysis of linear Fresnel concentrators and the effect of plant azimuth on their optical efficiency

Cited by 4 publications

References 31 publications

A novel approach for incidence angle modifier calculation of arbitrarily oriented linear Fresnel collectors: Theory, simulations and case studies

A novel approach for incidence angle modifier calculation of arbitrarily oriented linear Fresnel collectors: Theory, simulations and case studies

A model for energy predictions and diagnostics of large-scale photovoltaic systems based on electric data and thermal imaging of the PV fields

Estimating the solar potential of the rooftops of the city of Genova through the 3D modelling of the built environment and anisotropic tiled sky analysis

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