Energetic and economic analysis of shading effects on PV panels energy production

Abstract

Shading represents one of the main aspects influencing PV generators energy production. The presence of close shading elements, such as adjacent buildings, or shading originated by panels themselves, can strongly limit their energy production. Shading impact is not only evident on energetic aspects, but also on the economic and environmental ones: in the most unfavourable cases, in fact, the investment payback period tends to increase to a large extent and also CO2 avoided emissions are consequently reduced. In this aim, in the study two different shading effects on energy production of a PV generator, installed on a building roof have been analysed: that originated by its tilted strings, in order to determine their optimum tilt angle in relation to both energy production and total surface, and that projected by an adjacent tower building, in order to evaluate production trend vs. obstacle distance and height. For the latter case, the shading influence on the economic and environmental items have been analysed, respectively assessing the Net Present Cost and avoided CO2 emissions.