Analysis of the impact of dust, tilt angle and orientation on performance of PV Plants

The objective of this study is to review and compare performance of PV systems under the influence of dust, different tilt angles and orientations. The process was carried out by comparing one-year measured data, simulated data and analytically calculated data. The performances of five different PV installations which amount to 1280 kWp installed in Cyprus International University, North Cyprus was analyzed as a case study. The PV plant, which was planned and commissioned by Sustainable Energy Research Center of CIU, is installed in five different locations on the campus by deploying three mounting techniques. The influence of dust and cleaning on the PV systems were examined. After implementation of the cleaning procedure, an average of 2.5% variance in specific yield was obtained. The effect of the different inclinations on each system is also reported. Mean specific yield of Arazi (25° tilt) plant is 1732.44 kW/kWp which is 17.3% and 5.6% higher than Stonite (6° tilt) and Arena (6° tilt), respectively. In addition, simulation results were compared with the measured data from installed PV plants. The energy production at Arazi, Carpark and Arena PV plants were higher than the simulated results by 7%, 3% and 7%, respectively while Stonite and B-Block energy production dropped by 3% at each. The mathematical method of obtaining energy output or extracting the global irradiation on an inclined surface presents average variance of 0.3% between calculated and measured energy. It is found that the mathematical model is more reliable than simulation and it can be used to extract the solar radiation on inclined surfaces with minimal error when the energy output is already measured. It can also be applied to other studies in the future.