Management of potential challenges of PV technology proliferation. (June 2022) - Alami, Abdul Hai
Highlights: Challenges facing photovoltaic technologies proliferation are presented. Cooling, cleaning and tracking technologies analyzed and discussed. Recommendations for enhancing photovoltaic efficiency are made. Abstract: Solar photovoltaic technology is a key renewable energy division that has proven effective especially in high solar irradiance regions. However, there the technology faces various operational and technical challenges. This work reviews and discusses recent innovations and research work done on the effect of solar radiation fluctuation, shading, soiling, weather, among others on solar panel performance. For example, recent shading-specific solutions and mitigation techniques are discussed and compared, then classified under topology, active systems, passive devices under different solar array configurations. A comprehensive and comparative review was conducted for several coating and cooling solutions for temperature control of PV modules. This is also coupled with a coverage of soiling and dust deposition challenges as well as effects of shading caused by dust, its effect on the increase in module temperature, and the cleaning difficulty introduced by having high humidity that magnify the effect of soiling. A comparative review of is presented on technologies to mitigate soiling effects through different cleaning, coating, and shielding methods, which can solve several problems.