Photovoltaic (PV) installations located in the northern hemisphere must be oriented to the south in order to obtain maximal annual yield. This is mainly driven by the remuneration mechanisms which incentivize maximal energy production to a certain extent. Nowadays, such support mechanisms are declining or even phased out in many countries. Hence, self-consuming the produced energy is getting more viable. In order to match better the load demand pattern, the azimuth angle of a PV installation could be changed or oriented towards multiple directions. This article investigates the benefits of PV installations facing other directions than the south. Therefore, the Hay & Davies transposition model has been used to calculate the in-plane irradiance, as it is found in the literature to be the most accurate for non-south faced PV installations. In order to determine the benefit, a large dataset of real measured consumption profiles has been used and then divided according to their annual consumption. Large consumers with an oversized east/west-oriented PV installation especially take advantage. The self-sufficiency index (SSI) is found to increase with almost 0.94 percent points, while the self-consumption index (SCI) increases with 6.46 percent points. The peak reduction is assessed by calculating the annual moving average of the month peaks. It is found that this moving average month peak reduction is marginal. Lastly, the reduction in storage capacity is found to be not that significant, although in terms of battery utilization it is found that the number of discharge cycles is reduced with 6%.
Third Sector Commentary: 'A view on neo-liberalism of the sector'
