33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

IMPROVEMENTS OF PHOTOVOLTAIC SYSTEMS BY USING SOLAR TRACKING IN EQUATORIAL

REGIONS

Vaca-Jiménez, S.1,2, Morales, C.1, Ordóñez, F.

1Facultyof Mechanical Engineering, Escuela Politécnica Nacional; Ladrón de Guevara E11-253, Quito – Ecuador
email: santiago.vaca@epn.edu.ec, carlos.morales01@epn.edu.ec, freddy.ordonez@epn.edu.ec
2Center for Energy and Environmental Sciences; Nijenborgh 6, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands

ABSTRACT: Solar tracking may increase the profitable energy of PV solar systems, since the PV panels are oriented
towards the sun during daylight hours. Thus, the radiation intercepted by them is higher. In this work, solar-tracking devices
are assessed with the aim of quantifying the possible improvement in the energy harvested by using solar tracking in an
equatorial region (Quito - Ecuador). For this, a series of simulations were made to compare the attainable power output of
a PV system installed in a fixed position against the alternative of using different tracking systems (two-axes and one-axis).
Additionally, the effect of nearby-, self- and horizon-shading were studied to identify which losses could potentially hinder
the improvement of the energy harvested by a PV installation with solar tracking.
Results hinted that systems with one-axis tracking are comparable to two-axes tracking for this region, and that shading
could represent power losses of around 30% for tracking devices in the case of nearby obstructions, especially when
obstructions are present nearby in the East direction. Self-shading could represent a 50% of losses, and horizon-shading
around 3%. These results could be used in the future to define strategies to optimize tracking systems in equatorial latitudes.
Keywords: Tracking, Modelling, Energy Performance, Shading, Simulation.

1 INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, PV energy systems are the fourth most
installed renewable energy in the world, just behind
bioenergy, hydropower and wind [1]. Nevertheless, the
current efficiency of PV installations is relatively low, so
any way to improve it is worthwhile.
Inside the feasible options to improve the overall
efficiency of a PV installation, solar tracking has shown to
increase the profitable energy, since the PV panels are
oriented towards the sun during daylight hours,
maximizing the energy harvested annually.
1.1 Solar tracking systems
In the literature we find that there are two categories
of tracking systems, when considering the degrees of
freedom (DOF) of the tracker: 1-axis trackers and 2-axes
trackers (see Fig. 1) [2].
Fig. 2), and that this path creates different climatic
conditions, it is interesting to see only few studies have
focused on these latitudes. This leaves a great knowledge
gap to fill, as most of the postulates and premises defined
in most of the existing literature should not be applied in
equatorial regions without considering the differences that
exist between them.
To our understanding, the study made by [7] is the
only comprehensive study that tries to compare two
systems (one fixed and one tracking) in a latitude of 5º.
They found an average improvement of 11% in the daily
efficiency of the PV array.
Therefore, this work attempted to contribute to the existing
knowledge, and fill the remaining gaps, using Quito,
Ecuador (latitude 0º) as the case study.

1.2 Literature review

There are many studies focused in the assessment of
the profitability and behavior of tracking systems. The
improvement of the energy harvested or the efficiency of
the PV arrays have been by far the most studied. Studies
have shown improvements in the 15-50% range in
comparison to fixed (tilted) systems [3]. Between the most
representative of them, there are the studies of [4] and [5],
in which they found an improvement between 33% to 35%
of solar tracking against the fixed arrays. However, these
increases in the performance depend on many factors, like
weather conditions [6].Also, many studies have focused in
understanding the effects that losses could have in the
overall performance of the system considering that
tracking devices will consume more energy and resources.
For instance, [7] found that the shadows casted by close
objects could reduce the electricity output by 6%.
Moreover, [8] hinted that shadows casted by obstacles
located far from the installation (horizon) could also be
representative in the performance.

1.3 Equatorial Latitudes

Considering than the sun’s path in the equatorial Figure 1: Solar trackers DOF classification. a) Types
latitudes is very different than in higher latitudes (refer to of 1-axis trackers, b) Types of 2-axes trackers.

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𝐼𝐵 𝛽𝑠
𝐵 = (1 + √ sin3 ) (6)
𝐼𝑇 2

𝐼𝐷 = 𝐼𝑇(𝑖𝑠𝑜) + 𝐼𝐶𝑆 (7)

Where, IT(iso) is the isotropic model and ICS is the

circumsolar radiation.
Finally, the reflected component is defined mainly by
the albedo (ρ) of the ground of the installation. The
equation in this case is defined as follows,

Figure 2: Annual sun’s path for Quito, Ecuador (0.16º S, 1 − cos 𝛽𝑠

78.44º W). Elevation angle (h), hour angle (ω) and azimuth
angle (γ).
This study had two stages: in the first one, we
compared the annual theoretical performance of tracking
systems against a conventional fixed installation.
Afterwards, we analyzed the possible effects of shading in
the overall performance of these tracking systems.
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Description of the Model
The base part of the model resides in the description of
the solar radiation into a surface that has a specific
inclination and orientation. In this case, the global incident
radiation (IT) is the sum of the direct/beam (IB), diffuse
(IDT) and reflected (IR) components that arrive from the sun
to the designated surface. This is described by equation 1.
𝐼𝑅 = 𝜌(𝐸𝑏 cos 𝑍 + 𝐸𝑑 ) ( ) (8)
2
In this case, the albedo factor used was 0.2 that is the
closest to urban settings according to [9], [10].
Three PV configurations (arrays) were used in this
study to analyze the effect that solar tracking has on the
overall performance of the system: 1) A fixed array of
modules (horizontal), 2) 1-axis horizontal tracker, and 3)
2-axes double horizontal tracker. For the tracking systems,
the tracking algorithm is defined in terms of a typical
equatorial solar path, and based on the hourly position of
the module (defined by the angles as Fig. 3 describes).

𝐼𝑇 = 𝐼𝐵 + 𝐼𝐷𝑇 + 𝐼𝑅 (1) Figure 3: PV modules position. Tilt angle (βs), and

Rotation angle (θs).
The direct component is defined by the angle of
incidence (AOI), which is the angle formed between the The definition of the parameters of each configuration
incident direct radiation over the surface of the panel and is presented in Table I.
the normal to the surface.
To calculate this component, we used equation 2. Table I: Description of the parameters used for the
modelled PV configurations.
𝐼𝐵 = 𝐸𝑏 cos 𝐴𝑂𝐼 (2)
Configuration Parameters
𝜋 𝑖𝑓 𝑎 < −1 Tilt (βs) 0º
𝐴𝑂𝐼 = { 0 𝑖𝑓 𝑎 > 1 (3) Fixed Rotation (θs) 0º
arccos 𝑎 𝑖𝑓 − 1 ≤ 𝑎 ≤ 1 Azimuth (γs) 0º
Tilt (βs) 0º
1-axis horizontal
Rotation (θs) ω – 90º
𝑎 = sin 𝑍 cos(𝛾 − 𝛾𝑠 ) sin 𝛽𝑠 + cos 𝑍 cos 𝛽𝑠 (4) tracker
Azimuth (γs) 0º
Tilt (βs) 90º-h
Where, Eb is the global radiation over a horizontal 2-axes double
Rotation (θs) ω – 90º
surface, Z is Zenit angle, γ is the azimuth angle, γs and βs horizontal tracker
Azimuth (γs) 0º
are angles that describe the PV panel and that are defined
by the tracking mechanism.
The diffuse component of the radiation is estimated by 2.2 Simulation and Software
the HDKR model (as described in [7]), in which the sky is The software used for the simulation was the NREL’s
considered anisotropic. In contrast with other models System Advisor Model (SAM) due to the availability of
available in the literature (like the isotropic, or the Perez tools and ease of use. In specific, this study found of great
model), the HDKR turns to be the most suitable aid the module destined to evaluate the shading effects in
considering the weather conditions of Quito (high PV systems.
radiation and clear skies), and the complexity of the This software has been validated several times in different
calculations. The equations governing this component are: studies, but it is worth to note one of them that stands out.
[11] found that SAM’s estimation of the annual generation
of a PV system has an error around the 3% compared to
𝐼𝐵 2 𝐼𝐵 1 + cos 𝛽𝑠
𝐼𝐷𝑇 = 𝐼𝐷 [ + 𝐵 (1 − )( )] (5) real on-site data.
2 𝐼𝑇 2
𝐼𝑇 The simulation considers the losses in the harvested
energy due to the lack of cleanliness on the surface of the

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 33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

panels, but it does not consider the effect this could have
in the mechanisms in charge of the tracking system. The 2
𝐹1(𝐼𝐵 cos 𝑍)𝐴 + 𝐹2 [𝐼𝐷 ( )] 𝐴
1 + cos 𝛽𝑠
idea of this paper is to analyze solely the PV system, and 𝑆𝑅 = (10)
𝛽 2
therefore, no other losses were considered in terms of the 𝜌 sin 𝑠 [𝐼𝐵 cos 𝑍 + 𝐼𝐷 ( )]
2 1 + cos 𝛽𝑠
electricity grid. Moreover, this project is the initial part of
a series of studies regarding PV installations with tracking
𝛽𝑠 𝜌 𝐾 𝐾 2 2𝐾
systems, including a future experimental assessment of the 𝐹1 = 𝜌 sin + [1 + − √ 2 − cos(180 − 𝛽𝑠 ) + 1] (11)
2 2 𝐿 𝐿 𝐿
configurations studied in this work.

2.3 Location 𝛽𝑠 𝜌 𝑅 𝑅 2 2𝑅
𝐹2 = 𝜌 sin + [1 + − √ 2 − cos(180 − 𝛽𝑠 ) + 1] (12)
The case study considers a theoretical installation in 2 2 𝐿 𝐿 𝐿
Quito, Ecuador, on the premises of the Escuela Politecnica
Nacional (0.16º S, 78.44º W and 2 804 m.a.s.l.). (𝑁ℎ − 1)
𝐴= (13)
𝑁ℎ
2.4 Meteorological Data
In the proximities of the selected study site there are a 𝐿(sin 𝛽𝑠 )
few meteorological stations. Nonetheless, the equipment 𝛼 = arctan (14)
(𝑅 − 𝐿)(cos 𝛽𝑠 )
used to collect the solar radiation data is still very
rudimental, and lack the required detail and accuracy to be sin(180 − 𝛼 − 𝛽𝑠 )
𝐾 = 𝑅 −𝐿( ) (15)
used in this type of study (i.e. only recorded global sin 𝛼
radiation or daylight hours, etc.). In consequence, the
meteorological data was obtained from the NREL’s Where, Nh is the number of rows that conform the
National Solar Radiation Database (NREL-NSRDB) array in the East-West direction.
because it contains a long log of historical measurements In this paper, self-shading was studied in terms of the
and it uses the physical model to define the radiation data. constructive distribution of the arrays (how the modules
Additionally, this database was validated recently with on- are assembled together), and the separation between them,
site measurements [12]. defined as Ground Cover Relation – GCR (Eq. 16). Three
We used the typical meteorological year (TMY) for array configurations were studied: 1x4, 2x2 and 4x1 (see
the simulations. Therefore, the results obtained in this Fig. 5).
study correspond to a likely (and representative) year, not
an historical one.

2.5 Modelling of losses due to shading by different types

of obstacles.
The impact that shading could have in the overall
performance of the PV installation with tracking Figure 5: Shadows casted by adjacent rows of PV
mechanisms is significant. Thus, it is quite important to modules.
analyze the effect that most common obstacles can have
on a tracking system. 𝐿
In general terms, the losses due to shading are defined 𝐺𝐶𝑅 = (16)
𝑅
by the rate of power reduction (in percentage), defined in
this paper as S. The chosen GCR for the study is 0.9.
The first types of obstacles studied in this paper are the The impact of the other types of shading were defined
modules themselves. When a PV array is configured with by the loss factor (T) that describes the percentage of the
solar tracking, their movement in specific moments could time that specific shadow has its effect in a day. Once the
cast shadows to adjacent arrays (refer to Fig. 4). These are T is defined manually for all these obstacles, the
defined as self-shading. affectation due to shading (S) is calculated with equation
17.

𝑇
𝑆 =1− (17)
100%

The second type of obstacles analyzed were the nearby

buildings around the PV installation. In this case, we
studied how the nearby obstacles casted shadows into the
PV modules. To define the general effect of these shading,
the study contemplated the existence of 8 obstacles in
Figure 4: Shadows casted by adjacent rows of PV within the distance of 4 meters from the center of the PV
modules. array. We varied the height of those obstacles to generalize
the results, as the shading effect will only be defined by its
The relations used to model the shading effect of position with respect to the PV installation, and the angle
adjacent cells are described in equations 9 (diffuse that the highest point of the building describes in reference
component) and 10 (beam component): with the PV module (see Fig. 6).
Finally, the last type of shading structures studied are
2 𝛼 𝑁 −1 the far obstacles, or also defined as horizon obstacles. In
𝐼𝐷𝑇 − 𝐼𝐷𝑇 ( ) (1 − cos2 ) ( ℎ ) this case, Quito is located between two massive mountain
1 + cos 𝛽𝑠 2 𝑁ℎ (9)
𝑆𝐷 =
𝐼𝐷𝑇 chains, which are surrounding the city. The city and the

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mountains extend in a North-South direction, so the of the monthly electricity output (see Fig. 8), it is possible
horizon obstacles (in this case the mountains) are East and to identify that even in the worst-case scenario (in the
West of the city. The first step to analyze these losses was solstices), the difference between 1-axis and 2-axes
to measure the heights and positions of the obstacles and trackers is not higher than 6.5%.
graph the profile of the horizon in the sun’s path for Quito.
For this, the tools available in Google Earth© were used, Table II: Monthly and Annual energy harvested for the
using as reference the location of the Escuela Politécnica three configurations of the PV systems [kWh/m2].
Nacional.
Month Fixed 1-axis 2-axes
January 166.51 215.70 226.26
February 140.33 177.79 180.61
March 146.85 174.58 174.80
April 144.46 185.82 187.71
May 154.69 192.85 200.33
June 151.54 194.39 207.00
July 172.19 235.89 249.30
August 178.55 236.65 242.26
September 167.57 215.60 216.00
October 166.93 204.19 205.97
November 150.33 189.50 196.14
December 149.00 181.43 190.63
Figure 6: Shadows casted by nearby buildings, and their
Year (TMY) 1888.95 2404.39 2477.01
definition of spatial location and elevation angle.

As seen in Fig. 7, the mountains are in the path of the

sun. Moreover, the west obstacle is high enough to
obstruct the sun’s path in the afternoon for almost an hour
(from 17h00 to 18h00).

Figure 8: Monthly electricity output for the three PV

systems configurations (bars). Difference of electricity
output between 1-axis and 2-axes (line, expressed in
percentage).

Figure 7: The horizon obstacles’ profile graphed in the
sun’s path.
3 RESULTS
As defined in the previous section, three system
configurations were modelled and studied using the
meteorological data of Quito, Ecuador. This section will
show the different results of the simulation.
3.2 Shading impacts in the performance of the system
In terms of the arrays’ configuration of the PV
modules, the simulation defined that the best configuration
to avoid excessive self-shading is the 4x1. This does not
represent that all arrays should contain four modules
aligned together, but the fact that the arrays should be
defined in an East-West direction. Actually, the worst is
the North-West configuration (refer to Fig.9).

3.1 Improvements of the energy harvested due to tracking

Table II. shows the theoretical improvement in the
cumulative energy incident over a normalized 1 m2 of PV
installation, for the three configurations.
As expected, solar tracking gives an important
advantage in comparison to a horizontal fixed position in
the same location. On one hand, two-axes tracking reaches
the highest improvement, with 34.62% more of the
harvested electricity annually. On the other hand, one-axis
tracking reaches improvements around the 30%. Thus,
both improve the energy output significantly.
Figure 9: Self-shading effect of three different module’s
When comparing both tracking systems, the difference of arrays in a sunny day. No shadows, refers to a hypothetical
their annual performance is low (approx. 4%). In the case scenario in which the self-shading does not exist.

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 33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition
Furthermore, about the far obstacles (horizon), the
simulation showed that these types of shadings do not
affect significantly the performance of the PV with
tracking systems. Since, both tracking systems only
reduced their annual electricity output by 2.6% when these
losses were considered (see Fig. 10). However, it is also
worth to mention that the fixed configuration had the lower
reduction in the performance.
Figure 10: Effects of shadows casted by horizon obstacles
in the performance of the three configurations of PV
systems.
Finally, in the subject of the nearby obstacles, the
results obtained suggest a significant impact on the annual
performance from high buildings located East of the PV
installation (refer to Fig. 11). Interestingly, this effect does
not have the same impact from buildings located West of
the installation. Similar trends are observed in the NE and
SE in relation to the NW and SW counterparts. North and
South obstacles cast an important shading into the
installation, but according to our findings, there is not as
great as in the case of the East of West obstacles.
Figure 11: Shadows casted by nearby obstacles and the
effects on the PV system defined by height (described by
the angle) and position of the obstacle in relation to the PV
installation.
4 DISCUSSION
Solar tracking systems in equatorial latitudes do
represent a viable alternative to significantly improve
the electricity output of a PV installation. In this matter,
there are two main factors that affect the performance of
solar tracking PV systems in these regions: 1) Yearly sun’s
path, 2) Meteorological conditions.
4.1 Sun’s path
On one hand, the sun’s path affects greatly the annual
electricity output. Taking the point of view of an observer
on the equatorial line, the sun’s position in the sky defines
a small difference in the elevation angle through the year
(±23º in the solstices), but a constant rotation angle (180º
all year long, from east to west) as these latitudes have
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around 12 hours of sunlight yearlong. This fact is the main
reason why trackers in general harvest a significantly
higher amount of energy annually, and especially why a
horizontal 1-axis tracker has a similar annual power output
than a double horizontal 2-axes tracker as they do not have
to make great changes in their tilt angle to position
themselves facing the sun. Therefore, the results obtained
in this study contrast with the existing literature in the fact
that 2-axes trackers are found to be more effective in
increasing the electricity output than 1-axis trackers (for
instance as described in [13]). According to our results, the
difference between the energy harvested by the two
tracking systems is lower than 7%.
Therefore, one can infer that for equatorial latitudes
the 1-axis tracking system provides more benefits than the
two-axes tracking systems as the latter implies more
energy consumption and higher costs (as seen in [12]).
In a similar fashion, our results suggest that the
tracking system should have an array of modules based on
a 4x1 configuration, in which the adjacent modules are
connected to each other in rows align with an East-West
direction. This is because the shadows casted by the rows
of this installation affect only the tilt angle and not the
rotation one. Interestingly, most of the PV installations in
Ecuador (not tracking) have a North-West configuration of
arrays, which indicates that the results obtained in this
study could have an important role in the future
deployment of PV power plants, especially the ones using
solar tracking to improve their performance.
These results have a global connotation as the sun’s
path is similar in all equatorial regions and depends only
on the latitude. Thus, similar results could be observed in
other equatorial latitudes despite the climate or specific
geographical features.
4.2 Meteorological conditions
On the other hand, the meteorological conditions
affect the specific location of the PV installation. In terms
of solar radiation, the TMY of Quito describes a unique
condition in which, historically, the irradiation early in the
morning is higher than later in the afternoon because of a
more abundant presence of clouds in the sky that block the
direct component of the solar radiation. In consequence,
the overall available radiation is lower than in the morning,
which translates in a lower impact of the possible obstacles
located in the west. This is the case for the horizon
shadows, in which despite having a high mountain located
west of the city (4 784 m.a.s.l.), the results suggest that this
obstacle located in the horizon of the city does not
represent a major obstruction to the possible energy
harvested by a solar tracking device, even though it is
situated in the annual path of the sun (as seen in Fig 6.,
Pichincha mountain nearly obstructs one hour of solar
radiation from 17:00 to 18:00). The lower mountain in the
east affect little to the performance, not because of its
location, but due to its height. It was not studied the effect
of a high mountain in the east side of the city, but it is
expected in this case that the result could change
meaningfully.
Accordingly, the high nearby obstacles located east of
the installation have a greater impact on the system’s
performance than the ones located in the west, even though
they have similar theoretical hours of sunlight. The results
also indicate that the shadows casted by obstacles located
North or South of the installation have a similar effect on
the yearly output of the installation.
At the end, these results obtained for Quito could not
 33rd European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition

be extrapolated to other equatorial latitudes as the Sep. 2014.

climatology of the city is different due to many geographic
features. It is obvious that these results are going to change
significantly if the study place is in a coastal area, or in a
lower height highland, despite of being located in an
equatorial latitude.
5 CONCLUSIONS
Solar tracking systems in equatorial latitudes do
represent a viable alternative to significantly improve the
electricity output of a PV installation. However, there are
many aspects that should be analyzed before the
implementation of the tracking system to avoid significant
losses due to shadows and the configuration of the arrays
of modules.
The 2-axes double horizontal tracker harvested a
slightly higher amount of solar energy annually than the 1-
axis tracker. Therefore, the latter was suggested to be the
best option for a tracking system in an equatorial latitude
as it represents the most cost-effective alternative.
In terms of the possible losses due to the shadows
casted by different obstacles inside and outside the
installation it was found that the arrays of modules should
be defined in an east-west configuration to avoid excessive
self-shading.
The results also suggest that the mountainous
landscape in the horizon of Quito does not affect
significantly the annual electricity output of a tracking
system.
Finally, nearby obstacles could cast the most
influential shadows that would reduce significantly the
energy harvested by a solar tracking system. Thus, it is
strongly suggested that the installation should avoid
nearby and high obstacles, especially those located east or
west of the PV modules.
[7] R. G. Vieira, F. K. O. M. V. Guerra, M. R. B. G. Vale,
and M. M. Araújo, “Comparative performance
analysis between static solar panels and single-
axis tracking system on a hot climate region near
to the equator,” Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev., vol.
64, pp. 672–681, 2016.
[8] J. Ranalli, R. Vitagliano, M. Notaro, and D. J. Starling,
“Sensitivity of shading calculations to horizon
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2017.
[9] C. Demain, M. Journée, and C. Bertrand, “Evaluation
of different models to estimate the global solar
radiation on inclined surfaces,” Renew. Energy,
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[10] A. G. Touchaei, H. Akbari, and C. W. Tessum,
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[11] J. Freeman, J. Whitmore, L. Kaffine, N. Blair,
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[12] C. E. Morales Cumba, “Estudio Energético en
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Politécnica Nacional, 2017.
[13] S. Deepthi, A. Ponni, R. Ranjitha, and R.
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6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors of this study would like to thank the

Escuela Politécnica Nacional for the support and funding
for this project (PIJ 15-07).

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