Comparison of solar power measurements in alpine areas using a mobile dual-axis tracking system

Abstract The rising demand for sustainable energy requires to identify the sites for photovoltaic systems with the best performance. This paper tackles the question of feasibility of photovoltaic power plants at high altitude. A direct comparison between an alpine and an urban area site is conducted in the south of Austria. Two low-cost automatic photovoltaic power measurement devices with dual-axis sun tracking and maximum power point tracking are deployed at two test sites. The system periodically performs a scan over the southern semihemisphere and executes maximum power point adjustment in order to assess the performance for a given direction. The gathered data shows a higher photovoltaic power yield in the higher altitude test site. Furthermore, the high altitude photovoltaic power as a function of azimuth and elevation angle appears to be not only higher but also more flat than in lower altitudes. This indicates a lower power loss in case of deviation from the optimal solar angles. The results show that even on low-cost hardware a difference in photovoltaic power can be observed, even though in this experiment it amounts to less than 5% increase of peak power in higher altitudes. However, the measured peak powers on the mountain are more stable and therefore closer to a constant level than the heavily fluctuating peak power values at the low altitude site. Additionally, a slight shift in optimal elevation angles between altitudes can be observed, as the optimum angle turns out to be lower on the high altitude site. This angle shift could be caused by snow reflections on the mountainous test site.