Comparative Study of Production of Three Grid-Connected PV Systems in two Cities of Morocco

Abstract

Solar energy technologies do not produce air pollution or greenhouse gases when they operate. The use of solar energy can have a positive effect on the environment when it replaces or reduces the use of other energy sources that have greater environmental impacts. However, there are environmental issues related to the production and use of solar energy technologies to select the most suitable technologies for each location. In this work, a comparative study was conducted of the various photovoltaic technologies for one year in each of the two Moroccan cities, Rabat and Mohammedia, located approximately 57.33 km apart. The three panel technologies studied are monocrystalline technology (m-Si), polycrystalline technology (p-Si) and amorphous technology (a-Si) with a power of 2.04 KWh each. The photovoltaic (PV) systems were installed in order to determine which technology produces the most clean electricity. It is based on a comparison of the monthly production of the three technologies in the two cities, and the justification of the behaviour of the three technologies using two similar weather stations installed near the solar panels. In such a way, the determination of the climatic conditions will justify the behaviour of the three technologies. The comparative analysis included annual energy efficiency, performance ratio, annual energy density and system efficiency. Thus, with these performances, we can observe that photovoltaic installations with polycrystalline are appropriate in Mohammedia, whereas in Rabat they are monocrystalline.