Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

The trend for integrating solar Photovoltaic Panels as an alternative renewable and sustainable energy source is growing in Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East. However, these efforts are not widely accepted by the society due to their lower efficiencies. The efficiency of the photovoltaic panels is affected by many environmental parameters, which have a negative impact on system efficiency and cost of energy, dust and increased panel temperatures being the most serious. This work presents the results of a case study conducted at The British University in Egypt at El-Sherouk city to study the effect of different parameters such as dust accumulation, water cooling and coating on their performance of both mono- and poly-crystalline panels at El-Sherouk City. The effects of high temperature and dust accumulation on different solar panels placed in natural outdoor conditions at El-Sherouk City were studied and the electrical performance of dusted, cleaned, and cooled PV panels is presented. The variation in the efficiency of mono-crystalline panels installed at different tilt angles, resulting from the accumulation of dust on their surface, was also studied. The results showed that the accumulation of dust on the surface of different types of solar panels can reduce the efficiency by 30%. While the high temperature can reduce the efficiency by up to 10 %. The results showed that the power reduction percentage was 17%, 20%, 25%, 27% and 30% for tilt angles 60°,45°,30°,15° and 0°; respectively. Tilt angles 15° and 30° showed to be optimal for the installation of the PV solar system, as they resulted the highest amount of output power.

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