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     Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology


Contribution to the Study of the Degradation of Modules PV in the Tropical Latitudes: Case of Senegal

Fatou Dia, Nacire Mbengue, Moulaye Diagne, Omar A. Niasse, Bassirou Ba and Cheikh Sene
Department of Physics, Laboratory of Semiconductors and Solar Energy (SOLMATS), Faculty of Science and Technology, University Cheikh Anta Diop, B.P. 5005-Dakar-Fann, S
Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology   2016  4:427-438
http://dx.doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.12.2383  |  © The Author(s) 2016
Received: August ‎21, ‎2015  |  Accepted: September ‎22, ‎2015  |  Published: February 25, 2016

Abstract

A major problem remains in the photovoltaic sector; the performances are rarely achieved because the solar panels do not work almost never under standard test conditions. This is added the degradation problems caused by exposure to UV radiation, temperature, humidity and aerosols for Sahelian environments. A contribution to the study of the degradation of the production of photovoltaic modules exposed to the real conditions in the tropical latitudes precisely coastal Senegal. The availability of environmental data and electrical parameters measured from a display unit for a year. The exploitation of the data allowed us first to show that the conditions according to actual site on modules are far from standard conditions (STC, T = 25°C, E = 1000 W/m2). Thus, actual site, the modules operate at sunshine values 800 W/m2 and temperatures between 40°C and 60°C. The damage on the production of associated modules could be calculated over the year and by season. This is the ratio between the maximum power measured under real conditions (Pmax) and rated power (P0) module measured under standard conditions. The impact of environmental parameters on this degradation was evaluated. The results show that this degradation is more affected by temperature followed by sunshine. The two parameters varying in the same direction, the results were used to evaluate the degradation of the production of PV modules.

Keywords:

Degradation, degradation parameter, environmental parameters, PV module, standard condition,


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Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.

ISSN (Online):  2040-7467
ISSN (Print):   2040-7459
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