Effects of particulate matters and climate condition on photovoltaic system efficiency in tropical climate region

Abstract

The design of the photovoltaic system comprises numerous factors, which can affect the scale of system installation. This research study investigated additional factors to common parameters that are used in fundamental computations, especially factors related to tropical climates. Moreover, pollution problems, such as Particulate Matter 2.5 microns (PM2.5) is currently becoming critical across these regions. Therefore, we also investigated the influence of PM2.5, ambient temperature and other factors towards the efficiency of electricity-generation from photovoltaic systems in a tropical climate zone. The parameters were collected using a data logger and the data was analyzed. The direct and indirect influences on the electricity produced from the photovoltaic system was described using the R2-value obtained from structural equation modeling. The results showed that ambient temperature and PM2.5 factors resulted in a direct negative effect on the electrical production in the tropical climate area. The equation could explain 59.0% of the factors affecting energy production; therefore can be applied to improve the development of system designs in tropical climate regions.

Keywords

• Photovoltaic system
• PM2.5
• Climate condition
• Tropical climate region