Here is a link to a thread I started about how to calculate the total potential harvesting from solar panels over a full day, anywhere on earth, any time of the year, for horizontal panels. It is not an "under the curve" calculus integration, but estimates the area by doing quite a few points.
http://www.classbforum.com/forums/f2...html#post57708
It would be pretty easy to just change the solar angle part of the equation to 90* all day, I think, for each of the calculation points and use the same method to get a total for the day with perfect tracking, harder for to calc for single tilt, as you would have two angles to put in. It would be very, very, interesting to see just how much you would actually gain over a day with perfect tracking.
I can tell you that there have been quite a few tiltable panel installs done over the years, and from what followup there has been, most are likely being used flat nearly all the time because of the hassle of tilting and the inability or difficulty of trying to get the van in right direction to get much benefit, from what I have seen and read.
Of course, you will not get 90* to the panel unless you can tilt and track so would need to be moving the panels on two axis continually, so has to be automatic and powered, which would use some of the gain for sure.
I think we all have to be careful when evaluating this kind of stuff to understand how the "maximum possible" compares with the "actual reasonably attainable". In this case, it is also very important to remember that the gains very early and very late in the day are going to be much higher in % than later in the day when the sun is higher, even with perfect tracking. The only real way to evaluate is to do the calculations like mentioned above, covering the entire day, for both types of panel orientation.
Interesting to me is that with a tilted panel facing straight south on longer days, you would likely get no solar input in the early morning and late afternoon as the sun would be coming up and going down north of the panel axis and not hit it.
Most of the articles I have read, and installations I have seen for permanent solar locations is that tilt is worth the effort, but not auto variable tilt, and full tracking is more trouble than it it worth. Solar farms appear to be fixed position and tilted at an angle that is the average of the yearly sun height at noon, at least around here.
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