TITLE:
Sensitivity of Solar Photovoltaic Panel Efficiency to Weather and Dust over West Africa: Comparative Experimental Study between Niamey (Niger) and Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire)
AUTHORS:
Alima Dajuma, Saleye Yahaya, Siaka Touré, Arona Diedhiou, Rabani Adamou, Abdourahamane Konaré, Mariama Sido, Michel Golba
KEYWORDS:
Solar Energy, PV Efficiency, Temperature, Dust, Humidity, Niamey, Abidjan
JOURNAL NAME:
Computational Water, Energy, and Environmental Engineering,
Vol.5 No.4,
October
31,
2016
ABSTRACT: Energy
demand is increasing while we are facing a depletion of fossils fuels, the main
source of energy production in the world. These last years, photovoltaic (PV)
system technologies are growing rapidly among alternative sources of energy to
contribute to mitigation of climate change. However, PV system efficiency
researches operating under West African weather conditions are nascent. The
first objective of this study is to investigate the sensitivity of common
monocrystalline PV efficiency to local meteorological parameters (temperature,
humidity, solar radiation) in two contrasted cities over West Africa: Niamey
(Niger) in a Sahelian arid area and Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) in atropical humid area.
The second objective is to quantify the effect of dust accumulation on PV
efficiency in Niamey (Niger). The preliminary results show that PV efficiency
is more sensitive to high temperature change especially under Niamey climate
conditions (warmer than Abidjan) where high ambient temperatures above 33°C lead to an important decrease of PV efficiency.
Increase of relative humidity induces a decrease of PV efficiency in both areas
(Niamey and Abidjan). A power loss up to 12.46% is observed in Niamey after 21
days of dust accumulation.