Estimate the solar radiation on a tilted surface for a

collector field located in Quito (Ecuador)

Jessica Mario Salguero, Henry Delgado Betancourt
EUETIB, Barcelona Industrial Engineering College
POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF CATALONIA
Barcelona, Spain
jezbel1989_18@hotmail.com, henry.dbetancourt@gmail.com

Abstractthis report estimates the solar radiation on a tilted

surface for a collector field located in Quito (Ecuador) for
September 15 and December 15. Applying different theoretical
equations the instantaneous radiation from the available data is
calculated. The calculations were performed to different slope
values: 3, 15, 30 and 45. The result of our analysis showed that
the optimum slope is 3 for the not tracking surface along of the
year. The values of mean daily radiation on a horizontal surface
for the two days of study were contrasted with the sum of
instantaneous radiation, obtaining a relative error of 1.2% for
both cases. The quantity of instantaneous incident radiation on a
tilted surface with optimum slope (=3) is 95.67% in September
and 94.09% in December, of the total available radiation.

H0
Kt
Go
I
Ib
Id
It
It,b
It,d
It,

extraterrestrial radiation [MJ/m2day]

clear index []
solar constant 1367 [W/m2]
total instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
beam instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
diffuse instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
total tilted surface instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
tilted beam instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
tilted diffuse instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
ground reflected instantaneous radiation [MJ/m2h]
II.

Keywordsthermal solar collector; tilted surface; solar

radiation.

I.
z
s

ts
LCT
s

opt
Lloc
Lst
D
EOT
H
Hd
Hb

NOMENCLATURE

zenith angle []
solar azimuth angle []
latitude angle []
declination angle []
number day of the year
hour angle []
solar time [h]
local time [h]
sunset hour angle []
azimuth angle []
day length [h]
incidence angle of radiation []
slope angle []
optimum slope []
local longitude []
longitude of standard time zone meridian []
daylight savings time
equation of the time (min)
mean daily radiation [MJ/m2day]
mean daily diffuse radiation [MJ/m2day]
mean daily bean radiation [MJ/m2day]

INTRODUCTION

The quantity of solar radiation incident on surface depends

on its orientation and slope. The data available of radiation in
the location is often the mean daily global radiation and its
components, beam and diffuse radiation received on horizontal
surface, but the data on tilted surfaces are not available and
they are also estimated with different models from those
measured on horizontal surfaces [1]. The solar thermal
collectors are normally installed with constant slope. For this
reason is necessary to know the quantity of total radiation
incident on the tilted surface to design the solar systems and
evaluate its performance.

III.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

The objectives of this study are: to estimate the solar

radiation on a tilted surface for a collector field located in
Quito (0.17W-78.48S), Ecuador, and to calculate the hourly
distribution of both the total radiation on the horizontal and on
the tilted solar collector field for September 15 and for
December 15.
The following aspects were considered:
The data available (Fig.1) of mean daily radiation
corresponds to the radiation for the central day of the
month H(15)

( ) =

18
17

= 23.45 (360

284+
365

MJ/m2/day

16
15

(3)
(4)

24

14

360

1 = ( 12)

13

(2)

60

1
15

( ) +

(5)

12

= 0.258 7.416
3.648 2 9.2282

11
10

(6)

Jan Feb Mar Apri May Jun Jul Ago Sept Oct Nov Dec

= ( 1)

H 14,8 15,6 16,3 15,5 14,8 14,4 15,3 16,0 15,3 15,2 15,4 14,3

360

(7)

365

Fig. 1. Mean daily values in a month [MJ/m2day], for Quito (NASA, 2014)

=
The collector field is oriented with the optimum azimuth
according to our location. Quito is in the equatorial line,
the sun path is from east to west drawing a straight line in
the middle of north and south hemisphere [3], we have
chosen a north orientation (azimuth =180) because the
city is in the south hemisphere.
Four slopes, =3, =15, =30 and =45 were analyzed
for the determination of the optimum slope for a nontracking surface working the whole year.
The fig. 2 shows approximately the incident radiation on a
tilted surface in Quito according to the atmospheric
science data center of NASA.
Tilt 0

Tilt 15

kWh/m2/day

Thus, the day length is:

=

24

(9)

B. On an arbitrary surface, incidence angle of radiation:

= (, , , , )
cos() = sin() sin() cos() sin() cos() sin() cos() +
cos() cos() cos() cos() + cos() sin() sin() +
cos()sin()sin()cos()cos()

(10)

The radiation received on a tilted surface depends on this solar

incident angle.

Tilt 90

For solar noon =0 (ts=12) and a solar incident angle equal to

zero, the optimum slope is obtained from the equation 10:

4
3
2

(11)

C. Radiation on a horizontal surface and its components:

0
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

= +

Month

Fig. 2. Monthly averaged radiation incident on an equator-pointed tilted

surface. Graph made with data from the NASA (NASA, 2014)

(8)

For the estimation of the solar radiation it is used the

isotropic model.
0 =
IV.

METHODOLOGY

180

A. Location of the Sun

Location of the Sun is given at any time by (z, s), which
were evaluated with the following equations:
cos z = cos cos cos + sin sin

(1)

= ( )

86400

sin )

(13)
(14)

(1 + 0,033 (

(12)

360
365

)) (cos cos sin +

(15)

Hour angle () describes the earth rotation around its polar axis and is the
angular distance between the meridian of the observer and the meridian whose
plane contains the sun.[4].

TABLE I.

for0.17 < Kt 0.75:

= 1.188 2.272 + 9.4732 21.8653 +

14.6484

(16)

Sep, 15

258

Local
time
12:08:56

Dec, 15

349

12:09:23 -23,34

TABLE II.

(18)

Ho

Hb

MJ/m /day

MJ/m2/day

37,12

0,413

0,75

11,519

3,817

35,58

0,403

0,77

10,984

3,344

INSTANTANEOUS RADIATION ON HORIZONTAL SURFACE

, =

(25)

MJ/m h

MJ/m h

MJ/m2h

Sept, 15

0,660

0,423

0,142

0,131

2,17

1,51

0,66

Dec, 15

0,660

0,422

0,142

0,131

2,03

1,44

0,59

TABLE IV.

OPTIMUM MONTLY SLOPE FOR A TILTED SURFACE

Month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

opt ()

21,10

13,12

2,65

9,58

18,96

23,48

Month

Jul

Ago

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

opt ()

21,68

13,95

2,38

9,43

18,98

23,17

(27)

The amount of direct radiation on a tilted surface, from the

horizontal one, can be calculated by multiplying the direct
horizontal irradiation by the ratio Rb. where is solar
incidence angle on a tilted plane and z is solar zenith angle.
=

(28)

RESULTS AND DISCUTION

The table I, II and III show the different parameter evaluated

for September 15 and December 15 at solar noon (ts=12:00) in
Quito.

=3

=15

=30

=45

650
600
550
500
450
400
Jan

1+

Instantaneous radiacion
(W/m2)

, = (

The table IV shows the optimum monthly slope considering

the day 15 of each month as a reference one. The slope angle
rank could vary between 2 and 23 along the year in order to
achieve the best performance of the installation.

(26)

Ib

=0
1

Id
2

Dec

(24)

Nov

= , + , + ,

rd

Oct

E. Tilted surface irradiace model

The total radiation on the tilted surface is the sum of beam,
diffuse and ground reflection components. The calculation is
performed using the following equation:

rt

Sept

(21)

Date

Agost

cos
180

(23)

V.

Hd

Jul

cos cos

(20)

= 0,6609 0,4767sin( 60)

11,79

Jun

cos
180

(22)

Hd/H

May

cos cos
sin

= 0,409 + 0,5016sin( 60)

90,07

14,33

TABLE III.

24 sin

, =

Kt

Apri

89,99

(19)

( + cos )
=

0,00

15,34

Mar

23,17

Dec, 15

a
24

N
(hours)
11,78

s ()

Sept, 15

Where:
=

s
()
0,00

MJ/m /day

Feb

z
()
2,38

(17)

()
0

MEAN DAYLY RADIATION AND COMPONENTS

H
Date

()
2,22

Date

D. Instantaneous radiation
The mean daily radiation is correlated with the
instantaneous radiation of the following statistical relations:
= +

POSITION OF SUN AT SOLAR NOON IN QUITO

Months
Fig. 3. Incident instantaneous radiation on different tilted surfaces along the
year.

The fig. 3 shows the incident instantaneous solar radiation for

solar noon of day 15 belonging to each month. We observe that
the optimum slopes to our selected location, Quito - Ecuador,
is =0 and =3, but we chose the slope of 3 because with the

=0 the rainwater can become stagnant on the surface of flat

solar thermal collector and damage the physical structure of
the panel.

Id

Ib

700

INSTANTANEOUS RADIATION ON A TILTED SURFACE WITH

=3
Rb

Ib,t

I,t

Id,t

IT

Date
-

W/m2

W/m2

W/m2

W/m2

Sept, 15

1,00

184,87

0,08

418,59

603,54

Dec, 15

0,98

160,47

0,08

398,84

559,39

Radiation W/m2

600
TABLE V.

500
400
300
200
100

In the table V and figures 4 and 5, it is observed that the

total instantaneous radiation is similar for the both cases,
September and December. Also it is shown the variations
using different slope values: the horizontal, optimum and the
worst situation.
=0

=3

0
5

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours
Fig. 6. Instantaneous radiation and its components on horizontal surface in
September 15

=45
I

Id

Ib

2,50

500,00

Radiation W/m2

Radiation MJ/h.m2

600,00
2,00
1,50

400,00
300,00

1,00

200,00

0,50

100,00

0,00

0,00
5

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours

Fig. 4. Hourly radiation distribution in September 15.

Fig. 7. Instantaneous radiation and its components on horizontal surface in
December 15

=0

=3

=45

Fig. 6 and fig.7 show that the beam radiation was significantly
smaller than the diffuse one for the two cases. The peak of the
instantaneous radiation was 603.59 W/m2 and 563.93 W/m2
for September and December respectively, at solar noon
(ts=12:00h). As it is seen in the graph all the components get
their maximum value at the same hour, 12:00, in the case of
beam radiation, it gets 184.72 W/m2 in September and 164.50
W/m2 in December.

Radiation MJ/h.m2

2,50
2,00
1,50
1,00
0,50
0,00
5

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours
Fig. 5. Hourly distribution in December 15.

It

Ib,t

I,t

Id,t

It

600

Ib,t

I,t

Id,t

600

Radiation W/m2

Radiation W/m2

500
500
400
300
200

400
300
200
100

100
0

0
5

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours

Hours

Fig. 8. Instantaneous radiation and its components on tilted surface (=3)

in September 15

Fig. 10. Instantaneous radiation and its components on tilted surface (=45)
in September 15

It
It

Ib,t

I,t

Ib,t

I,t

Id,t

600

Id,t

600

Radiation W/m2

500

Radiation W/m2

500
400
300
200

400
300
200
100

100
0
5

0
5

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours
Fig. 9. Instantaneous radiation and its components on tilted surface (=3)
in December 15

The Fig. 8 and Fig.9 are the results of evaluating the

instantaneous radiation and its components when the surface is
tilted an angle of 3. The maximum total radiation is 603.54
W/m2 in September 15 and 577.92 W/m2 in December 15. A
small variation exists between the tilted and the horizontal
surface. Besides, the reflected radiation is almost zero, so you
can even neglect it. Also it is seen than the values of the
components, if it is compared tilted and horizontal surfaces in
the same month are almost the same because of that the total
one has not varied.

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Hours
Fig. 11. Instantaneous radiation and its components on tilted surface (=45)
in December 15

As it can be seen in the Figure 10 and 11, the total

instantaneous radiation for a slope of 45 is 511.26 W/m2 in
September and 511.96 W/m2 in December. Both values are
smaller if they are compared with the cases of a tilted surface
with a slope of 3 and the horizontal surface case.
Furthermore the reflected radiation is a high value comparing
with the optimal case, where this reflected radiation is almost
zero.

TABLE VI.

INSTANTANEOUS RADIATION ON HORIZONTAL AND TILTED

SURFACE ON SEPTEMBER 15 (n=258)
Slope angles
LCT

ts

=0

=3

=45

It

It

(hour)

(hour)

MJ/m h

MJ/m h

MJ/m2h

5,68

-90

90,01

0,00

0,00

0,00

6,68

-75

75,02

0,40

0,39

0,35

7,68

-60

60,03

0,87

0,81

0,72

8,68

-45

45,05

1,36

1,27

1,11

9,68

10

-30

30,09

1,78

1,72

1,47

10,68

11

-15

15,18

2,07

2,05

1,74

11,68

12

2,38

2,17

2,17

1,84

12,68

13

15

15,18

2,07

2,05

1,74

13,68

14

30

30,09

1,78

1,72

1,47

14,68

15

45

45,05

1,36

1,27

1,11

15,68

16

60

60,03

0,87

0,81

0,72

16,68

17

75

75,02

0,40

0,39

0,35

17,68

18

90

90,01

Total

0,00

0,00

0,00

15,15

14,67

12,60

TABLE VII.

INSTANTANEOUS RADIATION ON HORIZONTAL AND TILTED

SURFACE ON DECEMBER 15 (n=349)
Slope angles
LCT

ts

=0

=3

=45

It

It

(hour)

(hour)

MJ/m h

MJ/m h

MJ/m2h

5,69

-90

89,93

0,00

0,00

0,00

6,69

-75

76,18

0,37

0,37

0,36

7,69

-60

62,60

0,82

0,83

0,73

8,69

-45

49,43

1,27

1,29

1,11

9,69

10

-30

37,22

1,67

1,70

1,47

10,69

11

-15

27,37

1,93

1,98

1,74

11,69

12

23,17

2,03

2,08

1,84

12,69

13

15

27,37

1,93

1,98

1,74

13,69

14

30

37,22

1,67

1,70

1,47

14,69

15

45

49,43

1,27

1,29

1,11

15,69

16

60

62,60

0,82

0,83

0,73

16,69

17

75

76,18

0,37

0,37

0,36

17,70

18

90

89,93

0,00

0,00

0,00

Total

14,16

14,43

12,67

The two tables VI and VII show the values of total incident
radiation on a horizontal and tilted surface by hour. The sum
of all the instantaneous radiations in the case of =0, in
September was 15,15MJ/m2h and in December was 14.16
MJ/m2h, which have a relative error of 1.2% compared with
raw data used. When =3 the mean daily radiations were
14.67 MJ/m2h for September and 14.43 MJ/m2h for
December. These values show that the 95.67% and 94.09% of
total available radiation fall upon the tilted surface. The worst
case was =45, because the mean incident daily radiation is
83.2% of the total radiation in the two days.
I.

CONCLUSSIONS

The values of mean daily radiation for September 15 and

December 15 (Table II) are almost similar due to the special
geographical characteristics of the Ecuadorian location where
the climatic conditions remain relatively constant along the
year without extreme changes.
In a solar collector using the horizontal and optimum slope,
the variation of the radiation is slightly small, receiving the
maximum of the incident energy and at the same time working
in the best conditions and efficiency for this particular case.
The clear index for this location is about 0.4. For this reason
the diffuse radiation is more important than the beam one and
a flat plate collector is a very good solution to take advantage
of the situation.
The mean daily radiation of the raw data used is in the same
order of magnitude of the results of the instantaneous radiation
integration along the time on a horizontal surface.

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[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]

Burlon S, Bivona S, Leone C. Instantaneous hourly and daily

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