PV Systems ET4378 – Assignment 1 – Solar Position Calculator

Purpose
The goal of this assignment is to learn how to calculate the path that the sun follows
from the perspective of an observer on the Earth’s surface.

Assignment Description
The goal of this assignment is to plot sun paths for specifics dates and analemmas for
given time instants in an arbitrary location. First, you need to be able to calculate
the sun position (in terms of altitude/elevation/zenith and azimuth) given a time
instant and a pair of geographical coordinates. You can create your own code to
calculate the solar position using the equations in Appendix E in the Solar Energy
Book but we recommend to use PV_LIB Toolbox
(https://pvpmc.sandia.gov/PVLIB_Matlab_Help/, check the documentation of the
function pvl_spa).

Once the solar position calculator1 is ready you will have to make 4 plots:

1) Plot the sun path on the 21st of March, the 21st of June, the 21st of December
and the 21st of September in Delft (latitude: +51.99, longitude: +4.35,
GMT+1).
2) Plot the sun path on the 21st of March, the 21st of June, the 21st of December
and the 21st of September in Lima (latitude: -12.07, longitude: -77.07, GMT-5).
3) Plot the analemmas at 6 AM, 10 AM, 1 PM, 5 PM and 8 PM (local time) in
Delft (latitude: +51.99, longitude: +4.35, GMT+1).
4) Plot the analemmas at 6 AM, 10 AM, 1 PM, 5 PM and 8 PM (local time) in
Lima (latitude: -12.07, longitude: -77.07, GMT-5).

Deadline
Have this calculator ready before the second instruction session. This assignment has
no deliverable, the deadline is to help you keep up with the course.

Errata Appendix E
15∘
Equation (E.12): 𝜃𝐿 = 𝐺𝑀𝑆𝑇 [ℎ] + 𝜆0 ; [ℎ] is not a variable, it means that GMST
should be expressed in hours.

1You can use the sanity check in Instruction II to verify if the solar position calculator is working
correctly. Note that different solar position calculation methods might result in slightly different
angles. The values reported in the slides of Instructions II have been obtained using the equations in
the Solar Energy Book.