Identification and Mitigation of Atmospheric Effects on Solar PV Panel

Abstract

The power output of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels varies significantly and depends on the solar flux, the state of the power regulating apparatus, geographical locations, and environmental factors. Identifying and analysing these factors is essential for applying suitable mitigation techniques to nullify the power-reducing effects. Dust deposition reduces efficiency by up to 60%, depending on the type and amount of the dust matter. For every 1-degree Celsius increase in the solar cell temperature, the electrical efficiency drops by 0.22%. Similarly, as sun irradiation increases by 100 W/m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , the solar cell temperature and output power grow by 3.82 °C and 3.14 W, respectively. PV module performance is susceptible to being impacted by direct or nearby (in the radius of 60 meters) lightning strikes. This induces overvoltage transients in PV modules and in their power conditioning circuitry. Therefore, the focus of this paper is on mitigation of these atmospheric effects on solar PV panels.