OPTIMUM YEARLY TILTED ANGLE OF PHOTOVOLTAIC CELL TO RECEIVE MAXIMUM SOLAR RADIATION IN SOUTHERN IRAQ CITIES

Abstract

The performance of photovoltaic cell is affected by the value of its tilt angle with respect to horizontal plane, where the variation of tilt angle changes the amount of solar radiation permit to the photovoltaic cell surface. So that, the using of solar tracking system for photovoltaic cell will get the maximum solar radiation that permit to the surface of the cell at any time and day of the year, but the solar tracking systems have high operation and maintenance costs and are not always applicable. It is often convenient to set the solar collector at an optimum fixed tilt angle over a time of the year with less reduction in solar radiation received in the cell surface.This work is to find an optimum tilt angle of photovoltaic cell located in southern Iraqi cities Basrah city (latitude 30.30), Amarah city (31.55) and Nasiriyah (31). A mathematical models was used and programed by engineering equation solver EES to find an optimum tilt angle depending on the maximum solar radiation, the tilted angle varied with range from 0 to 90. The results showed that the optimum tilt angle for Basrah is 28, where for Amarah is 30 and for Nasiriyah is 29.