Study of Energy Gains by Orientation of Solar Collectors in Baghdad City

Abstract

Firstly, in this study, a brief updated description and applications of different solar collectors used in renewable energy systems for supplying electric and thermal energy was presented. Secondly, an attempt was made to utilize tilting orientation of solar collector for maximizing collector energy with time in respect to horizontal orientation. For energy calculation, global solar radiation was used since they are directly related.  For that purpose, field measurements of half-hourly radiation on two flat panels of tilting and horizontal orientations were carried out throughout 8-month period under local climate of Baghdad. Then, energy gain and radiation level averages were calculated based on the field radiation data using Excel programming. The tilting orientation was found to be more effective for the winter months with significant energy gains of larger than 40% and maximum gain of 58%. On the contrary, the radiation levels on collector were lower during winter months. Finally, for clear sky condition, the average solar radiations for tilting and horizontal orientations of collector were of 910 W/m² and 713 W/m² respectively.