Photovoltaic Modules Tilt-Angle Orientations for Optimal Solar Power Production in the Coastal Region

The coastal region in Nigeria where Delta State University Abraka, Oleh campus is located in Southern part of the Country that is faced with yearly heavy amount of rainfall. The consistence rainfall hinders effective solar system workability as factors such as humidity, daisy cloud, thunder storm, heavy wind and extreme low temperature tilt-angles of solar panels etc affect solar photovoltaic cells efficiency. This study focuses on investigating the effect of tilt-angle and orientation of the installed solar photovoltaic (PV) modules known solar panels. Experimental tools were employed which include a constructed manual rotating stand, a multimeter and a 100Watt panel to ascertain the various tilt-angles for the given location. The experiment was performed for thirty days over a period of three months (September 2024 to November 2924). Manual rotating the panel for very tilt-angle, the corresponding short-circuit current (SCC) and open-circuit voltage (OSV) were taken on hourly basis. This was employed in the determination of the panel average output power delivery for the period. Finding shows that a +100 tilt-angle of panel orientation, covers 457.065 square-meters with a maximum accumulated average output power of power of about 130Watt while a tilt-angle of -400 covers 264.35 square-meters with a maximum accumulated average output power of of about 60Watt at noon on daily basis. Based on this observation, it is recommended that in Faculty of Engineering, Delta State University Abraka, Oleh Campus, solar panels installations should be positioned at a tilt-angle angle of +100 to maximize solar energy harvesting and utilization.