Self-shading of two-axis tracking solar collectors: Impact of field layout, latitude, and aperture shape

In this paper, an open source method for calculating self-shading in fields of two-axis tracking solar collectors of arbitrary geometry was developed and validated. The method was used to investigate the impact of latitude and collector aperture shape on annual shading loss. Simulations were carried out for the entire design space of field layouts by uniformly discretizing the layout parameters, i.e., aspect ratio, offset, rotation, and ground cover ratio.

Results showed shading losses generally increase with latitude, and the optimum aspect ratio decreases with distance from the equator. Aperture shape was shown to significantly impact power output; the annual shading loss was lowest for the rectangular collector and highest for the square collector.

Also, the impact of sub-optimal rotation of rectangular arrays was presented.