a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Keywords: This paper presents an approach which combines the orthogonal array experiment technique and an ant
Ant direction hybrid differential evolution direction hybrid differential evolution algorithm (ADHDEOA) in determining the tilt angle for photovol-
Orthogonal array taic (PV) modules. In this study, an orthogonal array (OA) is rst conducted to obtain the initial solution.
Photovoltaic Next, an ant direction hybrid differential evolution (ADHDE) is applied to search for a near optimum solu-
Tilt angle
tion. The purpose of this research is to maximize the output power of the module. The suns position at
any time and location was predicted by the mathematical procedure of Julian dating; then, the solar irra-
diation was obtained at each site under a clear sky. The searching for global optimal solution is applied to
a practical experimental system. The results show that the annual optimal angle for the Taipei area is
23.18; for Taichung, 22.32; for Tainan, 21.62; for Kaosiung, 20.83; for Hengchung, 20.27; for Hualian,
22.18; and for Taitung, 20.89 in seven Taiwanese areas, and the actual best annual tilt angles are close
to the computer simulation results.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
0957-4174/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2010.01.015
5416 Y.-P. Chang / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 54155422
Mathematical symbols
because such arrays are geometrically balanced in their coverage of 2.1. Julian day (JD)
the experimental region after only a few representative experi-
ments. By virtue of consecutive orthogonal arrays, the number of The Julian day (http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_day)
experiments can be reduced effectively before a set of satisfactory is the number of a day when counting from the rst day of a year.
lter components can be obtained. January 1 has a Julian day of 1; whereas, December 31 has a Julian
Dorigo and Gambardella introduced the ant colony system day of 365, except in leap years when it has a Julian day of 366.
(ACS) (Dorigo & Gambardella, 1997), a distributed algorithm ap-
plied to the traveling salesman problem (TSP). Chiou et al. pre- 2.2. Latitude and longitude at the equator as ; d
sented an ant direction hybrid differential evolution (ADHDE)
with integer programming, which is effective and efcient for Latitude and longitude at the equator as ; d can be expressed in
solving large capacitor placement problems in distribution sys- terms of the solar ecliptic longitude and latitude k; b . Because the
tems (Chiou, Chang, & Su, 2004). The study has two disadvan- longitude at the equator as is equal to the solar ecliptic longitude k,
tages: (1) only the total cost due to capacitor placement and the latitude at the equator d can be calculated from I; k and b:
power loss is considered. (2) The ADHDE dose not has a good
1
way to nd the initial capacitor placement. Therefore, it is dif- d sin sin b cos I cos b sin k sin I 1
cult to obtain a better solution since the enormous solution space
where the Earths axis is inclined I = 23.4392 to the plane of its
of the problem.
orbit.
Determining the tilt angle for photovoltaic modules in the
renewable energy belongs to the constrained combinatorial opti-
mization problems. Traditional methods of search and optimiza- 2.3. Solar azimuth and elevation angles Ad ; h
tion are too slow in nding a solution in a very complex search
space. Hence, some heuristics such as an ant direction hybrid dif- The solar azimuth angle Ad, a horizontal arc, can be calculated,
ferential evolution are widely applied for searching an optimal or to a good approximation, by using the following formulas:
near optimal solution. Akhmad et al. utilized a systematic investi-
sinLMST as
gation on the tilt and azimuth angle dependencies of output char- Ad tan1 2
sin u cosLMST as cos u tan d
acteristics of photovoltaic modules, but the method is difcult to
solve by conventional methods such as an exhaustive search (Akh- where longitude at the equator can be expressed in terms of Local
mad et al., 1994). From the above literature, a hybrid differential Mean Sidereal Time (LMST), which involves introducing a correc-
evolution method embedded with an ant colony search is able to tion for various local longitudes, and u is the geography of the
constantly choose different but most appropriate mutation opera- longitude.
tions during the solution process to accelerate searching for a glo- The solar elevation angle h, the angle between the direction of
bal solution. Thus, in this article, an ant direction hybrid the sun and the (idealized) horizon, can be calculated, to a good
differential evolution algorithm is presented for optimizing tilt an- approximation, by using the following formula:
gle of PV module. The orthogonal arrays technique is combined 1
into the designed ADHDE heuristic forming a new heuristic ADH- h sin sin u sin d cos u cos d cosLMST as 3
DEOA to obtain an initial solution for reducing the searching space
of the addressed problem. The computation results show that the 2.4. Total global irradiation
ADHDEOA is a good method for PV module to determine the tilt
angle. Fig. 1 shows the effects of a solar radiation incident line and a
normal line. The radiation that is not reected or scattered but
2. Mathematical model of the solar orbit and position reaches the surface directly in the line from the solar disc is called
direct radiation. The direct radiation S can be calculated by
To obtain the maximum output electrical energy from a PV sys- S Sc 1 0:033 cos2pn=365 cos h 4
tem, it is necessary to understand the nature of the dependence of
2
the solar orbit and position. The proper adjective relates Julian is where Sc is the solar constant (=1367 W/m ) and n is the day
used to the solar orbit and position. number.
Y.-P. Chang / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 54155422 5417
Start
ADHDE
Mutation operation
Crossover operation
Migration if necessary
Acceleration if necessary
G=G+1
No
G=Gmax?
Yes
End
mutation operation, respectively. The details of ant direction search The specic function of each diagram is described below.
are described in Chiou et al. (2004).
4.1. PV module
4. System under study
A PV module, which converts sunlight into electricity, can be
To conrm the computer simulation results, an experimental placed on the roof of a house to gain the greatest access to sunlight.
system was implemented for determining the optimum tilt angle A polycrystalline silicon PV module, KC85T-1, manufactured by
of the PV modules. Six xed-structure PV modules facing due south KYOCERA in Japan was used for this experimental system.
were installed with different tilt angles. The experiment was con-
ducted in Taichung, Taiwan between January 2006 and March 4.2. Thermometer and pyranometer
2007. Fig. 3 shows a schematic diagram of the system studied for
six different xed-tilt angles of 5, 15, 23.5, 35, 47 and 75, The output power of a PV module is affected by its temperature
respectively. and illumination intensity on its surface. In this experiment, to
Y.-P. Chang / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 54155422 5419
Load Load
regulator (PL Lamp 108W)
PV modules with fixed tilt angle
Charge (75AH,12V)*4
at 5o ,15o , 23.5o ,35o , 47 o and 75o Regulator 1~ 6 A/D
A/D Battery
RS 485
RS 232
o o o
P ranometer at 5 , 23.5 and 47
A/D
collect the daily data on temperature and irradiance for the PV optimization problem, in which the angles are determined at a
module, its temperature was measured by a thermometer and maximum of
the irradiance monitored by a pyranometer. Three thermometers
MR P 12
and pyranometers were installed at different tilt angles 5, 23.5
and 47, respectively. where R denotes the angles.
A charge regulator was interposed between the PV module and (1) Tilt angles
the battery. The proper operation of a battery charge regulator
Rmax > R > Rmin 13
should prevent both overcharging and over-discharging of battery
max min
storage, regardless of the system design and seasonal changes in where R and R are the upper and lower tilt angle limits
the load prole. If the system does not have a controller, the result of the PV modules, respectively.
will be a shortened battery life and decreased load availability. The (2) Terminal voltage
12 V, 300 Ah battery with deep-cycle lead-acid gel used in this
V max > V > V min 14
experiment consisted of four parallel strings of 12 V, 75 Ah batter-
ies. These batteries were charged by the PV module during the day where V max and V min are the upper and lower terminal volt-
for an average of 35 h and discharged at night for 5 h or 6 h age limits, respectively.
throughout the load.
If a battery is discharged below the deep-cycle, which is 50%, With the application of the ADHDE method, the procedure of
the result will be an extension of the battery life and increased load computing the tilt angle for the xed PV modules is itemized as
efciency when the battery is charged. The loads of a PV system follows:
can be of various types. In this study, the loads were six uorescent
lamps; thus, the power consumption was 6 18 W 108 W. Step 1: Input the parameter of equivalent-circuit model for solar
When the daily sunshine duration time is an average of 3 h, the cell.
time for collecting electrical energy is 85 W 7 PV Step 2: Construct the mathematical model of the solar orbit and
3 h 1785 Wh. Four 12 V, 75 Ah gel deep-cycle lead-acid batteries position for estimating the optimum tilt angle of xed PV
were connected in parallel array, the total capacity of which was modules using Eq. (1) through Eq. (5).
12 V 75 Ah 4 50% 1800 Wh when the deep-cycle was set Step 3: Using Eq. (9) through Eq. (11). The output power P, elec-
at 50%. The electrical energy from the PV module was very close trical energy E and the conversion efciency 1 with
to the total capacity of the batteries. respect to tilt angle R can be obtained.
Step 4: The orthogonal array is initially applied to determine the
4.5. Objective function starting point. Next, the ADHDE nds the N p 1 ran-
dom initial vectors.
The objective of this study was to implement a tilt angle calcu- Step 5: Choose the population size N p 10, the desired tolerance
lation for PV modules so that their output power and solar irradi- of the population diversity e1 0:1, the gene diversity
ance can be signicantly increased. The terminal voltage and e2 0:1, scalar factor F = 0.05, the crossover factor
constraints of the tilt angles were also considered. The calculation C R 0:5; a 2; b 1 and Q 1, and the maximal iter-
of tilt angles for PV modules can be formulated as a combinatorial ation number Gmax 50.
5420 Y.-P. Chang / Expert Systems with Applications 37 (2010) 54155422
Step 6: Apply ant direction search. 11.94 for MayJuly; 17.9521.13 for AugustOctober and
Step 7: Apply DE method, including the mutation, crossover, 50.4353.64 from November to January in the Taiwan area, as
evaluation and selection. shown in Table 1. It is noticeable that the optimum tilt angles for
Step 8: Acceleration and Migration (if necessary) is embedded in the months of May through July are negative. The negative sign
DE method. determines the tilt angle of modules; therefore, the modules faced
Step 9: Initial iteration number G 0. northward. A positive sign indicates that the modules are directed
Step 10: G G 1. southward facing.
Step 11: Evaluate the objective function value of the population Table 1 indicates the computed seasonal values of electrical en-
and constraints using Eqs. (12)(14). ergy and solar radiation on an optimum tilted angle. It is also indi-
Step 12: Check if iteration number G is reached Gmax . If satised, cated that in these seven Taiwanese areas the solar irradiation on
go to next step. Otherwise go to Step 10. the modules increases from May to July because the daylight from
Step 13: End. May to July are longer than those in the other seasons. Meanwhile,
the results presented in Table demonstrate that a module installed
5. Results and discussion at the seasonal optimum tilt angles for Hengchun receives the min-
imum electrical energy values of 67.75 kWh/m2 from May to July
The optimum tilt angles of PV modules for different areas of Tai- and the maximum of 67.88 kWh/m2 from the May to July at Taipei
wan have been established by using the ADHDEOA method and area. The aim of all the optimization processes in solar energy is to
accounting for the climatic conditions as well as the latitude of maximize the amount of solar radiation collected during summer.
each site. Seven Taiwanese areas were selected for study is Taipei, The preliminary results demonstrate that the seasonal optimum
Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Hengchun, Hualien and Taitung. In tilt angles of the modules provide the maximum collection of solar
practical applications, PV modules do not operate under a standard radiation in summer. In summer, the earths surface receives more
condition. The most important effects that must be allowed for are concentrated sunlight than in winter. During the summer season
due to the variable temperature. The information on sunshine (MayJuly), it is found that the amount of solar radiation has a
duration for different days in the year was obtained from the sur- maximum value of 779.51 kWh/m2 at Taipei area. It is noted that
face data in the annual climatological report published by the Cen- the amount of solar radiation falling over the globe is reduced in
tral Weather Bureau of Taiwan (CWBT) (http://www.cwb.gov.tw). spring (FebruaryApril).
When the sunshine duration is 14 h, then the time for collecting Table 1 also shows that the seasonal conversion efciency of the
the solar irradiance on the surface of the PV modules extends from modules ranges from 13.17% for Taipei to 13.51% for Hengchun
5 AM to 7 PM daily in 0.25 h steps throughout the calendar year by from August to October. Also, it should be noticed that, the sea-
simulation. During the sunshine duration, the solar irradiance sonal efciency for Taipei area is higher than that for Hengchun
accumulates each minute with the corresponding sunlight incident area in MayJuly season because the daily average ambient tem-
angle. perature of Hengchun is higher than that of the Taipei area at this
Table 1 indicates the computed annual, seasonal values of opti- time (http://www.cwb.gov.tw). An increase in module tempera-
mal tilt angles, electrical energy, solar radiation, and conversion ture increases the surface temperature of the module, conse-
efciency on an optimum tilted angle for the seven Taiwanese cit- quently decreasing its efciency.
ies by using the ADHDEOA method. It is noteworthy that Taiwan, The seasonal variations in the optimum tilt angles were ex-
located in the subtropical region of the earth, experiences a humid tended to evaluate the annual optimum tilt angle, which is a xed
climate with warm temperatures year-round. For this study, the value for any PV module throughout the course of a year. It was
calendar year was divided into four seasons, as follows: Febru- found that in Taiwan the optimal value of the annual maximum so-
aryApril, MayJuly, AugustOctober and NovemberJanuary. lar energy can be obtained from modules oriented southward with
The variation in the seasonal-averaged optimum tilt angles lies tilt angles in the range of 20.2723.18. For example, in Taichung
within the range of 23.426.39 for FebruaryApril; 9.41 to the optimal value is 22.32, oriented southward, as listed in Table
Table 1
Annual and seasonal results of PV modules for seven Taiwanese areas (simulation time: 5 AM7 PM, time steps: 0.25 h).
Table 2
Comparison of ADHDEOA method, GA method and the authorized result by ITRI.
2. For this year, a PV module tilted at an angle equal to the latitude 250
of the location will receive nearly normal solar radiation. Simulation result
240 Experimental result
(
Table 2 shows the comparison of ADHDEOA, GA and authorized
is good methods for determining the optimal tilt angle for xed
modules. Another similar comparison for annual electrical energy 224
between the experimental and simulation result with optimal tilt
angles installed at Taipei is shown Fig. 5. From this comparison, 225 GA
ADHDEOA
it was found that electrical energy in the range of 223239 kWh/
m2 can be obtained from PV modules oriented southward. It was 230
indicates that the module had a maximum value of 239 kWh/m2 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
Generation
on July received the maximum electrical energy. The average-an-
nual computer-simulated tilt angle was 229.30 kWh/m2. It should Fig. 6. Histories of annual electrical energy with respect to number of generations
be noted that the modules had the minimum electrical energy dur- in Taichung area.
ing winter. Thus, in this gure implies that the experimental result
of electrical energy is very close to simulation result by using the
ADHDEOA methods. quality between ADHDEOA and GA. It shows that ADHDEOA and
To demonstrate that the proposed method is efcient, Fig. 6 GA take 12 and 23 generations to converge, respectively. It should
shows the comparison of computation efciency and solution be noted that, in annual in Taichung area, the ADHDEOA method is
faster than GA. The objective function obtained by GA is lower.
80 6. Conclusion
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