Shading

Page PV-Modules: Shading

In the subitem shading information on the shading losses of a module surface can be found. The shading losses reduce the irradiation on the module surface, whereby direct and diffuse irradiation are equally reduced. There are two options for entering the shading losses:

  • Percentual value (Shading losses on an annual average)
  • Horizon line

Horizon line

A horizon line is defined by entering it in the table or by clicking on it in the diagram. A point of the horizon consists of the horizontal angle (azimuth) and the corresponding elevation angle. To create a horizon line, the points of the horizon can be entered or complete horizon lines can be imported using the button . The file to be imported must be in *.hor format.

*.hor-Format:
If you want to create your own skyline file, the file must be in the following format:

  • 2 columns separated by a space

  • In the first column are the horizontal angles, from -180 to 179°

    Horizontal angle *.hor format in degrees (°) Horizontal angle in PV*SOL in degrees (°)
    -180 0 - North
    -90 90 - East
    0 180 - South
    90 270 - West

  • In the second column the elevation angle, from 0 to 90°

  • Example: 

    -178 2
-177 3
-176 5
-175 5
-173 6
-172 7
-171 5
-170 5

Shading: Horizon line

Import horizon lines from PVGIS

Use the button to import horizon lines from PVGIS. A dialog opens that shows a map at the current location. Move the map so that the center of the map coincides as closely as possible with the planned plant location. The selected coordinates are displayed at the bottom right. Clicking the Ok button downloads the horizon line from PVGIS and inserts it into PV*SOL®.

Dialog for determining the horizon line of PVGIS

Recording horizon lines

The Horizon Recorder SunEye creates such horizon line files (*.hor). With a fish-eye-optic the whole hemisphere is taken up (top left). The horizon line can be detected from the image (green area, top right).

In PV*SOL® the horizon line can be imported and is displayed in Cartesian coordinates.

Recording a horizon line with the SunEye®.

See also