Technical performance prediction and employment potential of solar PV systems in cold countries

Agyekum, Ephraim Bonah, Mehmood, Usman, Kamel, Salah, Shouran, Mokhtar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9904-434X, Elgamli, Elmazeg and Adebayo, Tomiwa Sunday 2022. Technical performance prediction and employment potential of solar PV systems in cold countries. Sustainability 14 (6) , 3546. 10.3390/su14063546

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Abstract

Power distribution to decentralized and remote communities secluded from centralized grid connections has always been a problem for utilities and governments worldwide. This situation is even more critical for the isolated communities in Russia due to the vast nature of the country. Therefore, the Russian government is formulating and implementing several strategies to develop its renewable energy sector. However, very little information is available on the possible performance of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules under Russian weather conditions for all year round. Thus, this study has been designed to fill that research gap by assessing the performance ratio (PR), degradation, energy loss prediction, and employment potential of PV modules in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia using the PVsyst simulation model. A side-by-side comparison of the fixed tilted plane and tracking horizontal axis East–West were analyzed. According to the results, the annual production probability (P) for the fixed PV module for a P50, P75, and P90 is 39.68 MWh, 37.72 MWh, and 35.94 MWh, respectively, with a variability of 2.91 MWh. In the case of the tracking PV module, the annual production probability for the P50, P75, and P90 is 43.18 MWh, 41.05 MWh, and 39.12 MWh, respectively, with a variability of 3.17 MWh. A PR of 82.3% and 82.6% is obtained for the fixed and tracking systems, respectively, while the PV array losses for the fixed and tracking orientations are 15.1% and 14.9%, respectively. The months of May to August recorded the highest array losses due to the high temperatures that are usually recorded within that period.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Engineering
Additional Information:	This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/)
Publisher:	MDPI
ISSN:	2071-1050
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	26 March 2022
Date of Acceptance:	12 March 2022
Last Modified:	10 Feb 2024 02:09
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/148909

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