Farahat, A.; Kambezidis, H.D.; Kampezidou, S.I. Effect of the Ground Albedo on the Estimation of Solar Radiation on Tilted Flat-Plate Surfaces: The Case of Saudi Arabia. Energies2023, 16, 7886.
Farahat, A.; Kambezidis, H.D.; Kampezidou, S.I. Effect of the Ground Albedo on the Estimation of Solar Radiation on Tilted Flat-Plate Surfaces: The Case of Saudi Arabia. Energies 2023, 16, 7886.
Farahat, A.; Kambezidis, H.D.; Kampezidou, S.I. Effect of the Ground Albedo on the Estimation of Solar Radiation on Tilted Flat-Plate Surfaces: The Case of Saudi Arabia. Energies2023, 16, 7886.
Farahat, A.; Kambezidis, H.D.; Kampezidou, S.I. Effect of the Ground Albedo on the Estimation of Solar Radiation on Tilted Flat-Plate Surfaces: The Case of Saudi Arabia. Energies 2023, 16, 7886.
Abstract
This work investigates the influence of ground albedo on the solar radiation obtained by surfaces mounted on fixed-tilt to south, one-axis, and two-axis systems. To do this, estimation of the solar radiation difference is performed by applying real albedo and zero albedo. This is done within Saudi Arabia, at 82 selected sites. Annual, seasonal, and monthly mean solar energy differences are computed as function of the site’s number, latitude, and local near-real ground albedo. The great variation in the ground-albedo values at the 82 sites (0.1 - 0.46) could be thought as having a significant effect on the solar radiation levels received on the 3 tracking modes. The analysis shows quite the opposite; a zero-albedo ground diminishes solar radiation levels by 1.43%, 3.50%, and 3.20%, respectively for the 3 modes. Therefore, in most solar engineering applications a ground albedo of 0.2 (considered as reference) can be used without losing accuracy. This is the main conclusion of the study, which must, however, be applied with caution in areas with snow cover, especially for mode-III tracking systems. In such situations the increase in solar radiation levels may be up to 15% (but ≈3.5% for mode-I and -II systems instead).
Keywords
ground albedo; surface-reflected radiation; solar radiation on tilted surfaces; Saudi Arabia
Subject
Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
