Experimental and Modeling of a Photovoltaic Panel Efficiency under Equatorial Africa Conditions: Influence of Relative Humidity (RH) and Temperature

Abstract

Variation of the photovoltaic panels’ performance caused by severe environmental conditions requires precise characterization of electrical behavior dependence of this material with these atmospheric conditions. This article presents environmental causes, in the equatorial Africa region, especially in Gabon, Libreville city, of solar panels failure then presents results from an experimental study (thanks to an in situ characterization bench of photovoltaic solar panels) and a simulation model to predict the efficiency of a system photovoltaic (PV) operating in harsh environmental conditions such as an atmosphere of ≥ 80 % of relative humidity (RH) and temperature up to 40 °C and thus know the performance of these electrical components. The objective of this paper is centered on the power and fill factor, which is affected by parasitic (shunt) resistance, depending on open-circuit voltage (V_OC) and short circuit (I_SC) current with the help of the MATLAB model and experimental data. Results are discussed.