The Environmental Effects on The Photovoltaic Panel Power: Jeddah Case Study
Author(s):
Mohammed AlJuhani†,*, Mohamed R. Gomaa‡,‡†,*, Talal S. Mandourah†, Mowffaq M. A.
Oreijah†
Affiliation(s):
†Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Umm Al Qura University, Saudi Arabia
‡Mechanical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, Al Hussein Bin Talal University, Jordon
‡†Mechanical Engineering Department, Benha Faculty of Engineering, Benha University, Benha, Egypt
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This study aims to practically verify the effect of environmental factors on the solar cells efficiency, these factors that affect the performance of the cells have been tested, including the accumulation of dust on the cell surfaces, remnants of birds and/or birds dropping, in addition to the shadow caused by surrounding buildings or trees or so. This study was done on the rooftop of building in Jeddah, by putting four identical solar panels fixed on an iron stand then used the necessary equipment to carry out the measurements. The results showed that dust accumulated and dirt on the front glass of Photovoltaic (PV) panels had a significant impact on losing the electrical power generated by solar cells, so the solar cells should be cleaned regularly (monthly) especially in desert condition and depending on the severity of the weather conditions. One of the environmental factors that affected the performance of the PV cells are remnants of birds that partially blocked radiation from the sun. So, one should not overlook the importance of periodic cleaning of the solar cells to get the desired efficiency. The shading factor that partially blocked the sunlight from reaching the surface of the panels facing the sun had the highest influence of the efficiency of the PV cells and therefore the cells have to be placed in appropriate locations to allow for maximum efficiency.