MATLAB Programming Fundamentals - MathWorks

Panel Size and Efficiency

Let the reader change the values of parameters in the analysis to see how different

parameter values affect the results.

So far our calculations reflect the theoretical maximum solar radiation available for power

conversion. However, solar panels do not convert 100% of available solar radiation into

electricity. The efficiency of a solar panel is the fraction of the radiation reaching the

panel that is converted into electricity. The efficiency of a solar panel depends on the

design and materials of the cell.

Typically, a residential installation includes 20 m^2 of solar panels with an efficiency of

25%. You can modify the parameters below to see how efficiency and size affect panel

power generation.

eff = 0.36; % Panel efficiency

pSize = 25; % Panel size in m^2

pElec = eff*pSize*pRad; % Panel electric output in kW

disp(['Expected electical output = ' num2str(pElec) ' kW'])

Expected electical output = 8.0901 kW

Power Generation Over Time

Create plots in the Live Editor together with the code that produced them. Double-click a

plot to open it in a separate figure window.

We can now calculate how much power a panel will generate on any day of the year. To

simplify the analysis, we'll use a function called panelRadiation that uses the

equations above to calculate hourly total solar radiation and panel radiation for a given

date and location. The parameter isFixed is set to 1 for fixed panels, 0 for tracking

panels. Try different dates to see how the solar and panel radiation changes depending on

the time of year.

[time, sRad, pRad] = panelRadiation(date, longitude, latitude,

UTCoff, panelTilt, panelAzimuth, isFixed)

isFixed = 1;

selectedYear = 2016;

selectedMonth = 1;

selectedDay = 1;

date = datetime(selectedYear,selectedMonth,selectedDay,'TimeZone',TZ);

[times, sRad, pRad] = panelRadiation(date, lambda, phi, UTCoff, tau, beta, isFixed) ;

19 Live Scripts and Functions