Smartphone-based shade analysis using hemispherical fisheye imaging for local solar energy potential

Sammanfattning: In the emerging trend of smartphone use and a rising demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) power worldwide, this master thesis project explores the potential to utilize commercially available fisheye lens optics in combination with a smartphone camera to capture and analyze local shading conditions. Photogrammetric studies involving hemispherical sky photos have since long been used for environmental studies and solar energy applications, although mostly with high-end costly equipment. This methodology is therefore developed as an alternative solution using available low-cost equipment for conducting shading analysis. The method overcomes challenging concepts such as lens distortion calibration and image segmentation to calculate plane of array (POA) irradiance from the input image. Tested for both synthetic and real on-site shading analysis the developed method shows promising results in comparison to the more well-established PV system design software SAM. Ultimately it will challenge existing techniques with a more user-friendly, accurate and cost-effective shading analysis tool.