# Exploring the Benefits of Photovoltaic Non-Optimal Orientations in Buildings
## 3 Results
### Industrial PVSCs  
The annual electricity consumption for the factory was 665 MWh before the expansion and was estimated to be of 1000 MWh for when the factory is fully operational, so the owners wanted to generate the most electricity as possible. As the new building was projected with a flat roof for easing the operation and maintenance of the PVSCS, several layouts for the PVSCS were analyzed. The reference and the first option considered was  
Figure 10: Levelized cost of electricity for all configurations. (**a**) LCOE vs. annual PV production; (**b**) LCOE vs. PV installed power. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Configuration**} & **Peak** & **EPVV** & **LCE** & **EPV +** & **Avoided** & **Carbon** & **GGPBT 1** & **EPBT 2** \\  & **Power** & **(kWh)** & **(tCO2)** & **EBS** & **(MWh)** & **(tCO2)** & **(tCO2)** & **(years)** & **(years)** \\ \hline Original (Real Data) & 3850 & 6090 & 5.12 & 10.6 & 26.3 & 21.1 & 4.4 & 1.7 \\ Original & 3850 & 6005 & 5.12 & 10.6 & 25.9 & 20.8 & 4.5 & 1.8 \\ Energy optimal & 3850 & 6641 & 5.12 & 10.6 & 28.6 & 23.5 & 4.1 & 1.6 \\ Canopy (SE \& SW) & 4620 & 6354 & 6.14 & 12.7 & 27.4 & 21.3 & 5.1 & 2.0 \\ Facade (SE \& SW) & 4620 & 5067 & 6.14 & 12.7 & 21.9 & 15.7 & 6.4 & 2.5 \\ Canopy \& Facade & 4620 & 6120 & 6.14 & 12.7 & 26.4 & 20.3 & 5.3 & 2.1 \\ (SE) \& (SW) & & & & & & & \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} \({}^{1}\) Greenhouse gas payback time. 2 Energy payback time.  
\end{table} 
Table 5: Life cycle assessment indicators for the PVSCS layouts under study. the optimal energy producing orientation (South, 35\({}^{\circ}\) inclination). The limitation for this option is the wide separation between rows mandatory for avoiding mutual shading due to the high angle of inclination, causing a poor occupancy of the available area in the roof. In order to accommodate the maximum number of PV modules, a lower inclination of 15\({}^{\circ}\) with South orientation was selected and two other orientations were analyzed: east-west and two perpendicular orientations aligned with the principal axes of the building. It is important to note that, due to the high winds present in the winter, modules should be placed in landscape orientation and with the lowest possible inclination. The four layouts considered were simulated in PVSYST using the same PV modules, power optimizers, inverters, meteorological database, and simulation options. The results are presented in Table 6 and all the orientations have acceptable specific yields, ranging between 1495 kWh/kWp and 1729 kWh/kWp. The main goal of this installation was to reach the maximum annual energy production, and the four layouts in two groups of similar productions (the lower production group for the optimal energy-producing and the east-west layout) were discarded. The south orientation and the two orientations (both 15\({}^{\circ}\) inclination) exhibit higher annual production, with better specific yield and less production compared to the south one. Finally, the south orientation was discarded because of three reasons: lower annual energy production, poor accessibility to all parts of the installation, and sharper PV production profile. The Spanish regulation allows a fast-permitting process for PVSCS without surplus for installations of nominal power above 100 kW in most regions, for example in Castille and Leon [54]. For installations with a surplus above 100 kW, it is mandatory to obtain permits for grid connection [55] so there are several permitting stages that would delay the process both before and after building the PVSCS. In addition, the biggest portion of energy consumption is the cooling inherent to the meat processing; thus, the energy consumption in summer is double that in winter. In this way, the first option (south orientation) was discarded because it yields a sharper maximum at solar noon, so there is the risk of frequently producing more electricity than the consumption, so the inverters would curtail the production.