Performance of solar cell under changing atmospheric condition

Abstract

Solar panel or solar photovoltaic array helps in maximum utilization of energy during daytime that is from sunrise to sunshade. However, shading on solar panels can have a huge impact on the performance of solar photovoltaic panels. This shading has severed effects on the output of solar cells. But most of the time a common misconception occurs that the partial shading does not make any impact on the output of solar panels. But solar photovoltaic panels are highly susceptible to changing atmospheric conditions and the shades falling on it. Solar insolation, the surrounding temperature, array configuration and shading on solar panels affect the performance of the solar photovoltaic array. Basically, the solar photovoltaic panel consists of several cells that are connected to each other in a series circuit. Because of this series connection, the performance of the solar panel is significantly reduced even if the smallest section of the solar panel is shaded. Due to any of the factors such as passing of the clouds, neighbouring buildings, towers, trees and the presence of the telephones poles which can exert its complete or partial shadow on the solar panels, performance of solar array can be affected. It can be investigated that the P-V characteristic curve varies under different atmospheric conditions and changing number of shaded modules of the solar photovoltaic string. Overheating of shaded cells is the major effect caused by partial shading of the photovoltaic module. It leads to the reduction of energy of the entire solar module. Here we are studying the harmful effects and variations caused by partial shading on the overall solar photovoltaic module’s performance. PSPICE and MATLAB are types of simulation models to test the performance of PV module and to present the result.