An Experimental Study and Verification of the Facts Related to Factors Affecting the Performance of Solar PV Systems

This paper mainly focuses on the analysis of the various factors which are responsible for affecting the performance of a solar PV system. However, the performance is judged on the basis of the power output from the panel, so the analysis will be done for the factors which directly or indirectly affect the power output of Solar PV systems. The real time data is collected from the solar panel installed at the roof tops of the Electrical Engineering Lab Building of D.E.I., University, Agra, U.P. India. This paper provides an analysis of a study of the photovoltaic system's performance in real time and the factors affecting it such as partial shading, dust and temperature. Shading on PV panel may be due to shade of the long trees standing nearby the system, shade from the other parallel row of the panel, the shade due to birds sitting on the panel etc. Dust is also an important factor that degrades the panel rating. The temperature effect on the current and thus the power rating of the panel is also considered in this paper.