Case study of PV output power degradation rates in Oman

Abstract

To meet the increase in peak electricity demand and to reduce fossil fuel emissions in Oman and as an initiative taken by the government, by 2030, 15% (3000 MW) of the total energy mix (20,000 MW) should be generated from renewable energy resources like Solar and wind etc. It is crucial for the stakeholders and PV enthusiast to predict the return on investments and its performance in the local climatic conditions. In this paper, a case study has been presented where PV modules of different technologies, age and installed in different climatic conditions of Oman are studied. The results showed that the output power degradation for all modules is around 1.96%/year which is almost double compare to the European countries. Electrical analysis of different PV technologies showed that multi-crystalline silicon technology installed in hot and dry climate is degrading (around 2.54%/year) faster, while thin-film technology (CdTe) has shown lowest degradation (average of 0.8%/year) compare to any other PV technology. Furthermore, IR image analysis showed that presence of hot cells in PV modules are also a significant contributing factor in PV degradation rates. Severity of interconnect breakage (SIB) tests confirms the increase of the series-resistance of PV modules which is also a significant contributing factor for reduction in short-circuit current and thus PV maximum output power.

Application of dust mitigation strategies to single‐axis‐tracking photovoltaic modules in the semi‐arid areas of South Africa

“…These observations are further supported by the laboratory observations of Nayshevsky et al [47], who also reported on the formation of dust patches on the hydrophobic surfaces, due to the evaporation of dust contaminated water droplets. The formation of these dust spots should be avoided, since hard‐shading can lead to hot cells, which has been proven by Honnurvali et al [48], to accelerate PV module degradation.…”

UAE’s commitment towards UN Sustainable Development Goals

“…Due to the high level of energy consumption, the average CO 2 emission per capita is GCC countries is (= 25.36 Tonne) is three times greater than the CO 2 emission per capita in China (= 7.5 Tonne) and almost four times greater than the CO 2 emission per capita in United Kingdom (= 6.5 Tonne) -figure 2. Some research studies noted that much of the electricity in Oman is produced from oil and gas, which are neither renewable nor sustainable therefore these studies explore the geothermal, and biomass and solar resources for electricity production in Oman (Honnur Vali et al, 2018;Umar, 2018-a;Umar, 2018-b;Umar, 2017-b;Honnurvali et al, 2018). On the other side, countries such as the United Kingdom have raised the percentage (%) of the total energy consumption from renewable sources to 8.6% which was only 1.3% in 2000 (ONS, 2017).…”

Estimation of PV module degradation through extraction of I – V curve at inverter pre‐startup condition

“…To study the effect of temperature on estimation of R voc during the inverter pre-startup, a 100 kVA solar PV plant pre-startup data is observed for the last four years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]. During this period, the inverter is getting started between the extreme temperature conditions, i.e 21°C (during winter) and 33°C (during summer) and these conditions are simulated in MATLAB/Simulink at an irradiance of 50 W/m 2 .…”

“…Moreover, the degradation mode and its rate of degradation (the rate at which the PV output power declines) predominantly depends upon the installed site climatic conditions. For example, the degradation modes such as corrosion of busbars, solder bond failure, junction box damages, and broken interconnectors are more pronounced in hot climatic zones [5,6] which in turn increases the series resistance and in another case study in Oman [7] revealed that under hot and dry climatic conditions, crystalline module output is degraded at a faster rate (2.54%) when compared with other PV technologies and multicrystalline panels have a less performance ratio at higher temperatures [8]. Pieri1 et al [9] developed a time series model based on the robust principal component analysis to predict the degradation of the PV system.…”