Good day Steemians, It's the weekend! Trust we all had a good week..! Feels good to write here today again.
On this post, I'll be discussing a very important fact we all need to know about the working of solar panel.
There have always been this misconception that solar panel needs hot and the tropical region weather condition to work efficiently. I got this claim this time again during the week on a discussion with a client which actually prompted me to shedding light to this wrong thought regarding solar panels and cold weather.. She was so doubtful as much as you also will of having a good efficiency from the system during raining/winter period as the case may be.
But did you know that a good efficiency of the photovoltaic modules can be gotten at low temperature if effectively designed alongside other components of the solar power system
OK! Here we go....
Photovoltaic modules also known as solar panels basically is a collection of individual silicon cells that generate electricity from sunlight. You can read more about Photovoltaic system on my previous post
The types of solar panel technologies run on a scale of efficiency, durability and price.
The monocrystalline type of solar panel has proven to be the most efficient as compared to other common types.
Monocrystalline solar panels lives the longest and are the type mostly used in temperate àeregions as it performs better with low light conditions.
The misconception that solar panels does not perform well during winter is not a actually true as solar panel just basically works by absorbing ultraviolet light from the sun and not heat, to produce usable energy. In fact, the efficiency of solar panels tends to reduce at high temperatures thereby reducing it's output power
Solar Panels may not produce the kind of electricity gotten during summer but it still produces as much as power gotten during summer if well optimized. If the system is well optimized, people will get surprised by how much they can get of these during winter/ raining period.
A Maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is included in charge controllers equipped with solar array for it's optimization.
MPPT is used for extracting the maximum power from solar panels. The voltage at which a solar panel produces maximum power is referred to as the Maximum power point
A typical panel of 12V at cell temperature of 25°C would have a Maximum power around 18V and an open circuit voltage around 22V and can drop to as low as 14V on a very hot day.
On a cold day with low temperature, the maximum power voltage rises and MPPT works to extract the maximum power from the photovoltaic module.
MPPT charge controllers when equipped with solar array gets the excess voltage due to low temperature and converted to useable current to compensate for the charging of the battery bank of the solar system during this period. MPPT solar charge controllers therefore uses the MPPT algorithm to maximze the amount of current going into the battery bank during this period.
To better explain the effect of temperature on Photovoltaic system, I carried out a simulation of a 12V Solar Panel model using data from the nameplate to determine the Current-Voltage (I-V) & Powee-Voltage (P-V) characteristics at different temperature in MATLAB environment. The efficiency of a solar panel is determined by the Current, Voltage and Power characteristics of the module
I-V Curve at Different Values of Tempearture
Image created by me (@olajidekehinde)
P-V Curve at different values of temperature
Image created by me (@olajidekehinde)
The simulation shows the dependence of photovoltaic performance at different temperature Values
It can be seen on the I-V curve that as operating temperature increases, the output current dramatically increases while output voltage decreases which results in the net reduction in power with a rise in temperature as shown in the P-V curve.
It can be observed that solar panel will deliver maximum power output at low temperature provided there is a certain level of sunlight as it isn't just a function of temperature but also on solar irradiance. Solar Panel performance is a function of environmental condition (Temperature & Irradiance).
In cold weather, the solar irradiance tends to be at a very low value but accompanied with low value of temperature in which solar panel has proven to be more efficient.
At low temperature, solar panel performs very effectively as there would be no heat which will reduce the efficiency of the panel. At this condition, as it is found in temperate regions or during rainfall period in the tropical region. The panel voltage rises to its maximum thereby harnessing the voltage for maximum charge.
Conclusion
Winter period do not really affect the output power of solar panels like people seem to have believed. However, in temperate regions where we have lot of snow during winter, Panels are shut-off totally as they will not have access to sunlight but measures are taken to avert this by mounting panels at an angle the snow will easily melt and slide off with no time. And interestingly, if lot of snows are found in the ground in this region, it may actually help the solar panels to be more efficient as the added reflection from the snow on the ground could cause more light to be captured on the panels.
Hope I've been able to share my knowledge with someone regarding the working of solar panels and cold weather?
Solar Energy is a renewable energy which is available all through the year, it is sustainable, non polluting and inexhaustible
Enjoy the world of Solar Technology!
REFERENCES
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Really didn’t know that solar panels could still get charged even on exposure to low sunlight. Quite amazing !
This is why we have maximum power point tracking device to tap every little sunlight so even on a rainy day your solar generator would still be good to go... Well done @olajidekehinde.
I could have bet all I got that the cold weather affects the efficiency of the solar panel.
Informative piece. Thanks for sharing @olajidekehinde
I seriously thought those panels are useless when there is much temperature drop. Hmm, thanks for the enlightenment and saving me from great embarassment.
Knowledge is wealth. I ll always think solar operates only in hot weather. So, it absorbs UV light not heat..... Thanks for this...
Interesante lo de la nieve y los paneles solares... no lo sabía.
Nice post.. temperature is an imporant factor even in electricity transmission. Losses will be reduced if the temperature can be kept low. However, I was wondering if the size of the solar panels really matter. Is the dimension of the panel proportional to the votage or current it can generate.
You are right about this as the temperature increases, the current increases a little and the tension decreases a lot