Economic Impact of Partial Shading on Solar PV System A Real Case Study

Abstract

This study examines the economic impact of shading on PV panel performance by studying the varying effects of the barrier’s location, height, distance between the solar panels and the barrier, and the tilt angle variation. A mathematical model is derived in order to simulate the shading effect on the yield energy in various cases as mentioned above. The MATLAB/Simulink platform is used to simulate the shading process and to generate the results. The analyses are conducted on the yield energy over a day, month, and year. Results show that shadowing varies with several factors, with winter months experiencing shadowing above 28% and summer months as low as 10%, depending on barrier height. An economic study on a rooftop PV system at Palestine Polytechnic University (47 kWp, 164 panels) found it generates 67,545 kWh/year, yielding $9,643/year in revenue. Allowing partial shading added 46 panels, producing an additional 88,826 kWh/year of energy. The gained extra revenue is $11,098/year, equivalent to a 12.7% increase in the revenue with only a 9% shading loss. This approach boosts income by 24%, with extra revenue of ~$59,000 over 20 years.