A Generic Model for Optimum Tilt Angle of Flat-Plate Solar Harvesters for Middle East and North Africa Region

The present research proposes a comprehensive model to estimate the optimum annual fixed mode tilt angle ( ) as a function of all parameters that affect the intensity of solar irradiance incident on a tilted plane such as: latitude ( , diffuse fraction ( ) and albedo ( ) by using the weighting functions. It is a useful tool in obtaining a weighted fit when estimating the unknown parameters in a model. The horizontal components of solar irradiation are obtained via SODA database platform based on a reliable-validated hourly time series satellite-derived data for 19 sites on the Middle East and North Africa region. The Klucher anisotropic sky-diffuse transposition model is adopted in order to estimate the global tilted solar irradiance, as it recommended for many sites in MENA region. A polynomial regression model, is proposed to estimate as the product of all the above weighting functions and the latitude as . The proposed model was validated using several statistical indicators and compared with other results obtained by other researchers for different sky and albedo conditions. The results proved the applicability and reliability of the proposed model, as the R-square index showed that 89% of the considered sites were greater than 0.98, and the MBE index showed that 84% of the locations were less than one. The difference between the results obtained by the propose model and the calculated ones was less than 2% error for all sites except for Sana’a (6%). Moreover, they showed the high potential of the proposed model for use in engineering design, eco-energetic analysis and optimum design processes.