Energy Conversion and Management

(1)

Analysis and evaluation of the impact of climatic conditions on the photovoltaic modules performance in the desert environment

Ahmed Bouraiou

^a,b,^⇑

, Messaoud Hamouda

^a

, Abdelkader Chaker

^b

, Mohammed Mostefaoui

^a

, Salah Lachtar

^a

, Mohammed Sadok

^a

, Nadir Boutasseta

^c

, Mourad Othmani

^a

, Attoui Issam

^c

aUnité de Recherche en Energies Renouvelables en Milieu Saharien (URERMS), Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), 01000 Adrar, Algeria

bLaboratoire de Simulation, Commande, Analyse et Maintenance des Réseaux Electriques (SCAMRE), Département Génie Electrique, Ecole Nationale Polytechnique d’Oran, 31000 Oran, Algeria

cResearch Center in Industrial Technologies CRTI, P.O. Box 64, Cheraga, Algeria

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:

Received 29 July 2015 Accepted 30 October 2015 Available online 11 November 2015

Keywords:

Photovoltaic module Performance evaluation Degradation

Desert environment

a b s t r a c t

The main objective of this study is to investigate the impact of climatic conditions on the performance of photovoltaic modules installed in the desert region in south of Algeria. Firstly, the performance of ISOFOTON 100 module under daily weather conditions is evaluated. Next, the effects of partial shading and accumulation of sand dust for a period of two months on power loss and the current–voltage characteristics of photovoltaic modules are examined. Finally, the visual inspection of the degradation of the UDTS 50 modules such as discoloration of encapsulant and delamination show the influence of high temperature and the other climatic factors in the Saharan environment after a long time exposure of more than 10 years observed in the field at the Unit of Research in Renewable energy URERMS Adrar.

The performance degradation is also assessed using (I–VandP–V) curves normalized at STC condition compared with the nominal STC data given by the manufacturer. The experimental results show that the performance parameters such as maximum output current (Imax), maximum output voltage (Vmax), maximum power output (Pmax), open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current (Isc) and fill factor (FF) of UDTS 50 modules are degraded after these years of exposition.

1. Introduction

Renewable energy sources play an important role in the production of several energies used by the human in the world [1–5]. Photovoltaic solar energy is a renewable form of energy; it can generate electricity by converting the solar radiation using the photovoltaic effect [6]. The performance and efficiency of photovoltaic modules are affected by several factors such as solar irradiation and ambient temperature, humidity, wind, shading and sand dust accumulation[7–11]. The aging and degradation of photovoltaic modules is also dependent on climatic and environ- mental conditions[12,13]. Several research works and studies have treated the evaluation of the performance of photovoltaic modules under different climatic conditions, in particular the effect of sand dust accumulation and partial shading on the power loss in photovoltaic modules and arrays[14–17,18–21]. The objective of

this work is to study the effect of partial shading and deposition of sand dust on power loss in photovoltaic modules (ISOFOTON 100), we perform also experimental investigation of the effect of varying temperature and irradiation on PV performance parameters for one day. The evaluation of performance degradation after long term deployment of UDTS 50 modules under Desert environment is also performed using two methods, the first is the visual inspection of the defects modules using captured photos, the second method utilizes theI–Vcharacteristic measurement normalized at STC condition of the tested modules to be compared with the initial I–V Characteristic produced by the manufacturer (Nominal STC data), the quantification of the degradation effect along the time was obtained using the annual degradation rate for each performance parameter[22].

2. Experimental setup and measurements system–

2.1. Local of study

All studies presented in this work were performed in the field of Research Unit in Renewable Energy URERMS. Adrar which is a

⇑ Corresponding author at: Unité de Recherche en Energies Renouvelables en Milieu Saharien (URERMS), Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (CDER), 01000 Adrar, Algeria.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (A. Bouraiou).

Energy Conversion and Management 106 (2015) 1345–1355

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