Analysis of ten external factors affecting the performance of PV system

Photovoltaic energy is one of the fastest growing Renewable energy sources. Due to easy availability of solar radiation there is less dependence on fossil fuel. Moreover energy obtained from sun is clean and ecofriendly. The major concern in PV industry is its electrical conversion efficiency. A critical study of various factors affecting the PV module output can help to increase the conversion efficiency. This paper gives a realistic approach of ten external factors affecting the performance of the PV system. A real time experiment is conducted to test the effect of various factors like irradiance, temperature, angle of tilt, dust, shading, wind velocity, color spectrum, mounting, cable thickness, humidity. A comparative study of all these factors have been done in terms of maximum power output, efficiency, and fill factor. Solar irradiance and temperature are the ruling factors among all and the other external factors discussed in this work some way or the other depend on these two factors.