Impact of extreme temperature on solar power plant in Malaysia

Abstract

Although the subject of global warming attracts enormous attention, there is a limited number of analyses dealing with high ambient temperature impacts on energy system planning. This research aims to monitor the trend of extreme temperature and analyze its impact on solar power plants in Malaysia. Data from ClimateAP software using global climate models are used to estimate the percentage changes in annual average temperature by 2080 under high emissions scenarios in comparison to baseline data from the end of the 20th century. The heat map was used to show the projected of average temperature across Malaysia under the Radiative Concentration Pathways 8.5 scenario. Photovoltaic application is the most frequent used in solar power plant. The basic energy parameters of the solar photovoltaic module are calculated to find out the relationship between ambient temperature and power generated. It is found that the output power of the solar photovoltaic module is reduced about 0.3 to 0.5 % for every 1 °C ambient temperature increases. The temperature projection shows that all locations of solar farms showed a significant increase in temperature at above 30 °C in 2080 compared to the historical temperature. This temperature increment may risk to the solar panel degradation and reduce the efficiency of the solar module. Hence, it is important to figure out adaptation of extreme temperature for a long-term basis to maintain the efficiency of the solar module near the point of maximum power.