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Is PV panel electricity generation affected by shading surfaces?

Hello,

I am interested in accurately modeling the affects of shading objects on pv power generation. I am wondering if shading surfaces can be used to simulate shading objects like trees and neighbouring houses, and if the shade cast on the pv panels will affect the power generated by those panels.

If the panels are modelled using shading surfaces, are all shading surfaces converted into panels? This could be a problem in trying to model the lost production due to shading. Would creating separate structures in the zone in Sketchup accomplish the same goal?

I know this questions is very similar to this question, but I am using OpenStudio and Sketchup Plugin instead of E+ directly.

I'm not sure what the best option is to model the pv panels and simulate shading in Sketchup and OpenStudio. Any thoughts on this as well would be greatly apreciated.

Thank you

asked 2018-04-05 16:04:44 -0500

updated 2018-04-05 16:28:03 -0500

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There were a couple of questions there:

Yes, exterior shading surfaces (site or building) will have the desired effect of reducing the PV output when they cast shadows. You need to ensure that your selected solar shading model is accurate enough for the job.

If you use a shading surface as a PV panel, yes the default is to make the entire polygon PV area. You can use a shading schedule to reduce the total area to that of just PV, i.e. a BIPV window that only has, say, 50% of the window area covered in PV. You'd set your "schedule" to 50% shading, 100% of the time. There is an OpenStudio measure here that follows the shading surface + shading schedule logic for creating such a system.

answered 2018-04-05 16:25:55 -0500

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Thank you very much for your answer, it was a great help.

RChidwick (2018-04-16 12:42:55 -0500) edit

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