Different factors can be pressure, temperature and many more, but what are the most critical factors that effect the performance of a solar cell? Also what will be the procedure for testing and optimizing these critical factors?
what kind of solar panel are u talking abt? if it is Dye sensitized solar cells..may be i can help u...
The most common factors which affects the performance of solar cells are temperature and isolation level. But, other than that formation of duct on the panels, angle of panels partial shades also will affect the performance of the systems. Performance under partial shaded condition itself is the research topic.
In addtion the type of material and the technology applied in pv manufacturing also affects the performance. Read about thin film technology.
It depends on what you mean by "solar panels" :
A- for solar photovoltaic (SPV) modules of a given module technology, factors influencing their energy generation are :
A-1- Solar radiation intensity (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor
A-2- Cell temperature which itself depends on heat module transfer driven by two environmental factors :
A-2-1- Ambient temperature
A-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence remains low but not really negligible.
B- for solar thermal collectors (SThC) of a given collector technology, factors influencing their energy generation are :
B-1- Solar radiation intensity (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor
B-2- Average collector temperature which itself depends on heat transfer driven by two environmental factors :
B-2-1- Ambient temperature
B-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence is relatively small for glazed collectors but becomes very important for unglazed collectors (like the ones used to heat swimming pools for instance).
One has to take care with the apparent similarities shown above which in fact hide major differences coming from deeply different analytic results arising from two physics branches : semiconductor physics and heat and mass transfer.
As a consequence, for instance, ambient temperature favors SthC efficiency while it reduces it for SPV.
Nauman Khan is limited to "critical environmental factors". It is true that dust deposits have an impact and alter the performance but not only: shading and a huge amount of incidental staff can participate to reduce performance.
In fact, I should have mentioned "Solar radiation intensity effectively received by the module or the collector (in W/m²)".
UV rays probably around 330 - 360 nm are desired,
the back sheets should not get hydrolised ,
Transmittance of the EVA, Yellow index, UV cut off, Peel of the adhesion layers,
Angle of tilt, temperature etc
In addition, to all the excellent answers already stated above, snow shading can be a huge environmental factor in areas which snows e.g Canada and part of the US. Insolation and geographical factors such as latitude which determine the panel tilt angle should not be overlooked when it comes to PV system performance.
Let me give a complete answer to Nauman Khan :
It depends on what you mean by "solar panels" :
A- for solar photovoltaic (SPV) modules of a given module technology, factors influencing their energy generation are :
A-1- Solar radiation intensity effectively received by the module (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor. This effectively received solar radiation can be limited by dust, snow or any other natural or artificial shadowing.
A-2- Cell temperature which itself depends on heat module transfer driven by two environmental factors :
A-2-1- Ambient temperature
A-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence remains low but not really negligible.
B- for solar thermal collectors (SThC) of a given collector technology, factors influencing their energy generation are :
B-1- Solar radiation intensity effectively received by the collectror (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor. This effectively received solar radiation can be limited by dust, snow or any other natural or artificial shadowing.
B-2- Average collector temperature which itself depends on heat transfer driven by two environmental factors :
B-2-1- Ambient temperature
B-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence is relatively small for glazed collectors but becomes very important for unglazed collectors (like the ones used to heat swimming pools for instance).
One has to take care with the apparent similarities shown above which in fact hide major differences coming from deeply different analytic results arising from two physics branches : semiconductor physics and heat and mass transfer.
As a consequence, for instance, ambient temperature favors SThC efficiency while it reduces it for SPV.
In addtion to the view-point from solar panel (module) level, PV system level configuration also affect field performance finally. Current and power mismatch in the string or in the array might reduce expected power output, and selecting suitable invertor, wiring and connectors also need to be considered.
Technology topics have nothing to do here since Nauman Khan's question is related to "environmental factors". Can we focus on the topic ?
I also agree with Amin Be nouns.
Very recently we have conducted some experiments including the factor of dust deposition and humidity levels prevailing in the atmosphere. We observed significant effect of humidity levels which can affect the ambient and cell temperature on the performance of different types of solar cells.
Hi,
one point has not been mentionned in the many valuable answers given above : the spectral composition of the light wich depend on the atmospheric mass (solar height) and the meteorological conditions changes the efficiency of the PV pannels. The good adaptation of the mean spectral composition of the location and the nature of the semiconductors is important. For instance amorphous silicon is more sensitive to the blue part of the spectra than crystalline silicon. The different transparent layers of the panel influence differently the transmission of the photons of different wavelength. See for instance : "P Hoang, V Bourdin, Q Liu, G Caruso…","Coupling optical and thermal models to accurately predict PV panel electricity production",2013,"Solar Energy Materials …","Elsevier".
Regards to all,
Vincent
Vincent's addition here above allows to complete once more our answer to Nauman Khan's question :
A- For solar photovoltaic (SPV) modules of a given module technology, factors influencing their energy generation are :
A-1- Solar radiation intensity and spectrum (since this last depends on air mass) effectively received by the module (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor. This effectively received solar radiation can be limited by dust, snow or any other natural or artificial shadowing.
A-2- Cell temperature which itself depends on heat module transfer driven by two environmental factors :
A-2-1- Ambient temperature
A-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence remains low but not really negligible.
B- for solar thermal collectors (SThC) of a given collector technology, factors influencing their energy generation are :
B-1- Solar radiation intensity (since this last depends on air mass) effectively received by the collector (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor. This effectively received solar radiation can be limited by dust, snow or any other natural or artificial shadowing.
B-2- Average collector temperature which itself depends on heat transfer driven by two environmental factors :
B-2-1- Ambient temperature
B-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence is relatively small for glazed collectors but becomes very important for unglazed collectors (like the ones used to heat swimming pools for instance).
One has to take care with the apparent similarities shown above which in fact hide major differences coming from deeply different analytic results arising from two physics branches : semiconductor physics and heat and mass transfer.
As a consequence, for instance, ambient temperature favors solar thermal collectors efficiency while it reduces it for photovoltaic modules.
Thank you Amin, for this complete and clear synthesis of the question!
Dear respected Nauman Khan,
The critical environmental factors that the performance of a solar panel are:
1. Variation in solar intensity
2. Rainfall
3. Accumulation of dust on the surface of the solar panel
4. Ambient temperature
5. Shading of solar panel's surface
Best regards.
Kifilideen.
Dear Nauman Khan, Factors affecting the electricity production of solar panels could be categorized into two groups of environmental factors and the PV system specifications. The main environmental factors are solar irradiation and temperature. all the other environmental factors such as wind velocity, the accumulation of dust particles, humidity and .... would directly or indirectly affect these two main environmental factors (solar irradiation and cell temperature). for instance the accumulation of dust on the surface of PV panels results in an increase in the cell temperature and a sharp decrease in the received solar irradiation which cause a sharp decrease in the output production of the system.
A-1- Solar radiation intensity and spectrum (since this last depends on air mass) effectively received by the module (in W/m²), which is an environmental factor. This effectively received solar radiation can be limited by dust, snow or any other natural or artificial shadowing.
A-2- Cell temperature which itself depends on heat module transfer driven by two environmental factors :
A-2-1- Ambient temperature
A-2-2- Wind, which causes forced convection heat transfer with the atmosphere. Wind influence remains low but not really negligible.
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