Tag Archives: India

Calculation of Solar Panel Spacing for India (New Dehli)

I have been asked many times that what is the area required for a solar array with a particular rating (such as 20 KW) and I have given a simple calculation method in one of my earlier post. But real life is never so simple. There are a bunch of inputs that we need to get an exact answer. In particular we want to know what is the required spacing between solar panels so that they are not in shade for a particular part of the day (typically 5 or 6 hours) and for this we need a number of inputs such as latitude, longitude, solar noon on the worst day of the year etc. Here we show the sequence of calculations for a typical city in Northern India. Similar calculations would hold true for many cities in Pakistan as well.

Let us first list down the data we have for New Dehli a typical city in Northern India (this data is available on ESRL website).

Latitude: 28.6139
Longitude: 77.2090
Time Zone: +5.5
Worst Solar Day: Dec 21
Start of Solar Charging: 09:19 am
Solar Noon: 12:19 pm
End of Solar Charging: 3:19 pm
Solar Azimuth: 135.5 degrees (Azimuth at 9:19 am, the time solar panel just comes out of the shade)
Solar Inclination: 22.33 degrees (Inclination at 9:19 am, the time solar panel just comes out of the shade)

Solar Panel Spacing Calculation

Now lets assume that the length of the solar panel is 1.0 m and it is fixed at an angle of 30 degrees from the horizontal. Then the height can be calculated as:

h = 1.0 * sin(30) = 0.50

Now we are ready to calculate the distance between the panels.

D = h / tan(Inclination) = 0.50 / tan(22.33) = 1.22 m (this is the distance without Solar Azimuth Correction)

d = D * cos(180-Azimuth) = 1.22 * cos(44.5) = 0.87 (this is the distance with Solar Azimuth Correction)

So for a 1.0 m length panel we need to have a separation of about 0.87 m between the panels along the north-south line (panels facing south in the Northern hemisphere). To be on the safe side we can keep the distance a bit higher than this. We can estimate that the total area would be increased by a factor 2.0 (0.87 m is the separation of the panels and 0.87 m is the base of the triangle formed by  the inclined solar panel) or we can simply multiply the area calculated by the simple calculations (for a panel lying flat on the ground) given in the earlier post by a factor of 1.74.

Note: These calculations are valid for solar panels placed on the ground, in straight lines, along the east-west line (facing south). For panels placed on inclined rooftops the calculations would be different (area required would be generally lower). Also note that solar panels are highly sensitive to shading and even if only 10% of the panel is in shade its performance without deteriorate appreciably. Lastly some installations have different panel tilts for winter and summer (latitude +/- 15 degrees) and this needs to be catered in the calculations.

Qualcomm In Muddy Waters In India

Remember Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs proudly claiming that his company had prevented WiMAX from getting a hold in India by acquiring BWA licenses in four regions of India. Well now Qualcomm is in a bit of bother as the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) in India has raised objections to the license application filed by Qualcomm. According to news circulating on the internet the DoT has objected to Qualcomm filing four separate applications through its nominee companies in the four regions (Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala and Haryana) it had won the licenses on June 12, 2010. Secondly the DoT has also objected to the delay in the filing of application outside the three month period required by the laws.

Qualcomm has rejected these objections saying that it has followed all rules in letter and spirit. According to Qualcomm the license application was filed in August 2010 within the three month period as required by the laws. However this is disputable as Qualcomm also submitted a revised application in December 2010. Qualcomm has also countered the second objection by saying that it plans to merge the four nominee companies so that there is no breach of law. As per the rules “if at any stage the spectrum allocation is revoked, withdrawn, varied or surrendered, no refund will be made”. So if an understanding is not reached between Qualcomm and DoT, Qualcomm is set to lose more than $1 billion that it had paid for the BWA spectrum.

Qualcomm Inc. is a leading wireless chip manufacturing company of the world. It is the pioneer of CDMA technology and its chipsets have been embedded in more than a billion cell phones. Qualcomm has greatly invested in UMTS technology and is a strong proponent of WCMDA, HSPA and LTE standards. It had a paid about a billion dollars for the right to use a 20 MHz chunk of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band. It plans to bring TDD LTE to India, which is a considered to be a comparatively economical 4G technology.