A technical assessment on photovoltaic power generation under varying weather profile – Northumbria university pilot

The output from Photovoltaic (PV) system’s is mostly dependent on the weather of the area in which it is installed and it is greatly influenced by the amount of sunlight, irradiance intensity and the time of day (sunny or daylight hours). Consequently, climate in the United Kingdom (UK) does not allow the production of consistent power throughout the year. This paper discusses and analyses the realistic weather data in the UK to provide the accurate climate factor for solar energy production. The present study aims to help decision-makers take reasonable steps to provide solar energy production solutions while considering the weather benefits and as well as abnormalities. This paper tends to provide a comparative analysis of actual and theoretical performance conducted over a one-year monitoring cycle. The paper starts with an overview of performance co-efficient followed by the details of energy produced during various weather periods to investigate the reliability of depending solely on solar. A 75% decline in winter output relative to the summer and an energy generation of only 1.8% on the darkest day of the year compared to the brightest day are reported.