IMPACT OF POLLUTION AND TILT ANGLE ON SOLAR PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES PERFORMANCE

Abstract

A b s t r a c t: Taking into account the substantial cost of a photovoltaic (PV) system, should maximise module efficiency. The experimental tests are conducted with the group of 10 photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the building of the Electrical Engineering Faculty resided on the Polytechnic University of Tirana. The PV panels are split in groups of two with 5 different tilt angles, respectively 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. To view the pollution and the tilt angle effects, one of the panels is cleaned every day. Monitoring the group of panels gives interesting conclusion about the impact of the dust and the tilt angle on PV production efficiency, as well as, the impact of the tilt angle to the dust settlement. The results show an increase in the performance of clean panel. The I-V and P-V characteristics curves were constructed and compared. A b s t r a c t: Taking into account the substantial cost of a photovoltaic (PV) system, should maximise module efficiency. The experimental tests are conducted with the group of 10 photovoltaic panels installed on the roof of the building of the Electrical Engineering Faculty resided on the Polytechnic University of Tirana. The PV panels are split in groups of two with 5 different tilt angles, respectively 0°, 30°, 45°, 60° and 90°. To view the pollution and the tilt angle effects, one of the panels is cleaned every day. Monitoring the group of panels gives interesting conclusion about the impact of the dust and the tilt angle on PV production efficiency, as well as, the impact of the tilt angle to the dust settlement. The results show an increase in the performance of clean panel. The I-V and P-V characteristics curves were constructed and compared. Key words: photovoltaic module; dust; module performance; tilt angle; I-V characteristics REFERENCES : [1]Tian, W., Wang, Y., Ren, J., Zhu, L.: Effect of urban climate on building integrated photovoltaics performance. Energy Conversion and Management, vol. 48 (1), pp. 1–8, (2007). [2]Kaldellis, J. K., Kokala, A.: Quantifying the Decrease of the Photovoltaic Panels’ Energy Yield Due to Phenomena of Natural Air Pollution Disposal, Energy, vol. 35, pp. 4862–4869, (2010). [3]Betul Bektas Ekici: Variation of photovoltaic system performance due to climatic and geographical conditions in Turkey, Turk J Elec Eng & Comp Sci, Vol. 24, Num. 6, pp. 4693–4706 (2016). [4]SunPower Limited Product and Power Warranty for PV Modules, Sun Power®, July 2010. [5]Miqdam T. Chaichan, Bashar A. Mohammed, Hussein A. Kazem: Effect of pollution and cleaning on photovoltaic performance based on experimental study, International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Vol. 6, Issue 4, pp. 594–601 (2015). [6]Cano, J.: Photovoltaic Modules: Effect of Tilt Angle on Soiling, Master thesis, Arizona State University: August 2011. [7]AlAiawy, I. T.: Wind and other factor requrements to solar energy applications in Iraq, Solar and Wind Technology, vol. 7, pp. 597–600 (1990). [8]Mani, M. and Pillai, R.: Impact of dust on solar photo-voltaic (PV) performance: Research status, challenges and recommendations, Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev., vol. 14, pp. 3124–3131 (2010). [9]John, J. J.: Characterization of Soiling Loss on Photo-voltaic Modules, and Development of a Novel Cleaning System, Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, 2015 [10]www.geo.edu.al/site/, Institute of GeoSciences, Energy, Water and Enviroment, 2015. [11]Laudani, A., Fulginei, F. R., Salvini, A.: Identification of the one-diode model for photovoltaic modules from datasheet values. Sol Energy, vol 108, pp. 432–446 (2014). [12]Guide to Interpreting I-V Curve Measurements of PV Arrays, Solmetric Corporation, 2010. [12]Pantic, Lana S., Pavlovic, Tomislav M.: Determination of physical characteristics of horizontally positioned solar module in real climate conditions in Nis, Serbia, Physics, Chemistry and Technology, vol. 14, No 1, pp. 37–51 (2016).