Design and Optimisation of Solar Panel Angle and Orientation for Maximum Energy Generation

This study focuses on the optimisation of solar panel tilt and azimuth angles to maximise photovoltaic (PV) energy generation, with Lusaka, Zambia, serving as the reference location. Solar energy potential in Zambia remains underutilised despite the country’s abundant solar irradiance, primarily due to a lack of locally adapted optimisation models. In order to address this gap, the project developed and implemented a low cost, data driven system capable of simulating, analysing and optimising solar panel orientations using computational tools that were freely available.

A synthetic solar irradiance dataset covering one year of hourly data for 2024 was generated to represent the solar resource profile of Lusaka. These were used to calculate plane of array irradiance and corresponding DC and AC power outputs. Data cleaning, transformation and exploratory analysis were conducted in Python using pandas, matplotlib, and seaborn, while the system modeling and optimisation were implemented using pvlib library.

An interactive user interface was developed using Streamlit to allow users to upload their own irradiance datasets in CSV format. This design made sure that the optimisation process could be replicated across different regions with minimal configuration and no internet dependence, thereby maintaining accessibility in low resource environments. The optimisation process identified an optimal tilt angle of 15 degrees for Lusaka, which produced the highest annual energy output compared to other configurations.