72. Influence of Meteorological Parameters on the Performance of 10.5 kWp Photovoltaic System in Algerian Sahara

This paper presents a performance evaluation of a grid connected photovoltaic system of 10.5 kWp installed on the roof of a building at the Renewable Energy Research Unit in the Saharan environment (URER/MS) in Adrar (Algeria) in the desert conditions. The monitoring data of the PV system over a 3 months period (26 March 2018 to 26 June 2018), are used to evaluate weekly and monthly energy yield, losses, conversion efficiency, performance ratio and capacity factor, which are the most and appropriate parameters widespread in the literature. This assessment results have been analyzed in detail in order to support the Algeria’s national renewable energy program, particularly the choice of PV plants injected into the grid in the middle of the Sahara. This study shows that the maximum Array capture losses and thermal capture losses with a weekly average 2.39 h/day and 0.51 h/day respectively. The weekly average values of the performance ratio, capacity factor, efficiency of the PV module and system were 63.67%, 33.56%, 10.07% and 9.74%, respectively. The energy generated by PV system is 3.41 MWh and 96.63% of this energy is injected into the grid.