Analysis of the impact of dust, tilt angle and orientation on performance of PV Plants

A.A. Babatunde, S. Abbasoglu and M. Senol

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 2018, vol. 90, issue C, 1017-1026

Abstract: The objective of this study is to review and compare performance of PV systems under the influence of dust, different tilt angles and orientations. The process was carried out by comparing one-year measured data, simulated data and analytically calculated data. The performances of five different PV installations which amount to 1280 kWp installed in Cyprus International University, North Cyprus was analyzed as a case study. The PV plant, which was planned and commissioned by Sustainable Energy Research Center of CIU, is installed in five different locations on the campus by deploying three mounting techniques. The influence of dust and cleaning on the PV systems were examined. After implementation of the cleaning procedure, an average of 2.5% variance in specific yield was obtained. The effect of the different inclinations on each system is also reported. Mean specific yield of Arazi (25° tilt) plant is 1732.44 kW/kWp which is 17.3% and 5.6% higher than Stonite (6° tilt) and Arena (6° tilt), respectively. In addition, simulation results were compared with the measured data from installed PV plants. The energy production at Arazi, Carpark and Arena PV plants were higher than the simulated results by 7%, 3% and 7%, respectively while Stonite and B-Block energy production dropped by 3% at each. The mathematical method of obtaining energy output or extracting the global irradiation on an inclined surface presents average variance of 0.3% between calculated and measured energy. It is found that the mathematical model is more reliable than simulation and it can be used to extract the solar radiation on inclined surfaces with minimal error when the energy output is already measured. It can also be applied to other studies in the future.

Keywords: PV; Performance analysis; Specific yield; Tilt angle; Orientation; Dust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032118302028
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:rensus:v:90:y:2018:i:c:p:1017-1026

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 600126/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2018.03.102

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews is currently edited by L. Kazmerski

More articles in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().