bifacial_radiance.RadianceObj.set1axis#

RadianceObj.set1axis(metdata=None, azimuth=180, limit_angle=45, angledelta=5, backtrack=True, gcr=0.3333333333333333, cumulativesky=True, fixed_tilt_angle=None, useMeasuredTrackerAngle=False, axis_azimuth=None)[source]#

Set up geometry for 1-axis tracking. Pull in tracking angle details from pvlib, create multiple 8760 metdata sub-files where datetime of met data matches the tracking angle. Returns ‘trackerdict’ which has keys equal to either the tracker angles (gencumsky workflow) or timestamps (gendaylit hourly workflow)

Parameters:

metdata (MetObj) – Meterological object to set up geometry. Usually set automatically by bifacial_radiance after running bifacial_radiance.readepw. Default = self.metdata

azimuthnumeric

Orientation axis of tracker torque tube. Default North-South (180 deg). For fixed-tilt configuration, input is fixed azimuth (180 is south)

limit_anglenumeric

Limit angle (+/-) of the 1-axis tracker in degrees. Default 45

angledeltanumeric

Degree of rotation increment to parse irradiance bins. Default 5 degrees. (0.4 % error for DNI). Other options: 4 (.25%), 2.5 (0.1%). Note: the smaller the angledelta, the more simulations must be run.

backtrackbool

Whether backtracking is enabled (default = True)

gcrfloat

Ground coverage ratio for calculation backtracking. Defualt [1.0/3.0]

cumulativeskybool

[True] Wether individual csv files are created with constant tilt angle for the cumulativesky approach. if false, the gendaylit tracking approach must be used.

fixed_tilt_anglenumeric

If passed, this changes to a fixed tilt simulation where each hour uses fixed_tilt_angle and axis_azimuth as the tilt and azimuth

useMeasuredTrackerAngle: Bool

If True, and data for tracker angles has been passed by being included in the WeatherFile object (column name ‘Tracker Angle (degrees)’), then tracker angles will be set to these values instead of being calculated. NOTE that the value for azimuth passed to set1axis must be surface azimuth in the morning and not the axis_azimuth (i.e. for a N-S HSAT, azimuth = 90).

axis_azimuthnumeric

DEPRECATED. returns deprecation warning. Pass the tracker axis_azimuth through to azimuth input instead.

Returns:

trackerdict (dictionary) – Keys represent tracker tilt angles (gencumsky) or timestamps (gendaylit) and list of csv metfile, and datetimes at that angle trackerdict[angle][‘csvfile’;’surf_azm’;’surf_tilt’;’UTCtime’] - or - trackerdict[time][‘tracker_theta’;’surf_azm’;’surf_tilt’]