Shadow analysis of wind turbines for dual use of land for combined wind and solar photovoltaic power generation

Wind and solar energies are among the main renewable energy sources. Large wind and solar farms are designed separately for each type of energy. Dual use of the land for wind and photovoltaic energies may save land area and will result in matching the utility load better than with wind or solar alone. Shading by wind turbines on photovoltaic panels may affect the output power. The amount of shading and its pattern are of interest for deployment of the photovoltaic panels in the wind farm land. The present article deals with the calculation of shadows cast on the land area by wind turbines during the year for two latitudes, 32 and 50. The calculations show that the average percentage "loss" of land for photovoltaic panels due to wind turbine shading is less than one percent. Crown Copyright (C) 2015 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.