Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2017) 132: 106
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/i2017-11381-4

Regular Article

Optimal angle of polycrystalline silicon solar panels placed in a building using the ant colony optimization algorithm

¹ Laboratoire De Physique Énergétique, Faculté Des Sciences, Université des Frères Mentouri/1, Constantine, Algeria
² Department of Physics, Faculty of Matter Sciences, University of Batna 1, Batna, Algeria
³ Department of Applied Physics, Amity University Haryana, Gurgaon, India

^* e-mail: drsaouane@gmail.com

Received: 22 August 2016
Accepted: 29 January 2017
Published online: 1 March 2017

Abstract

This paper describes the mathematical model used to determine the amount of solar radiation received on an inclined solar photovoltaic panel. The optimum slope angles for each month, season, and year have also been calculated for a solar photovoltaic panel. The optimization of the procedure to maximize the solar energy collected by the solar panel by varying the tilt angle is also presented. As a first step, the global solar radiation on the horizontal surface of a thermal photovoltaic panel during clear sky is estimated. Thereafter, the Muneer model, which provides the most accurate estimation of the total solar radiation at a given geographical point has been used to determine the optimum collector slope. Also, the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm was applied to obtain the optimum tilt angle settings for PV collector to improve the PV collector efficiency. The results show good agreement between calculated and predicted results. Additionally, this paper presents studies carried out on the polycrystalline silicon solar panels for electrical energy generation in the city of Ghardaia. The electrical energy generation has been studied as a function of amount of irradiation received and the angle of optimum orientation of the solar panels.