loading page

Weather Effects on the Efficiency of Photovoltaic Systems in Medellín, Colombia
  • Nathalia Correa Sánchez,
  • Oscar Mesa,
  • Carlos D. Hoyos
Nathalia Correa Sánchez
Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Corresponding Author:nacorreasa@unal.edu.co

Author Profile
Oscar Mesa
Universidad Nacional de Colombia
Author Profile
Carlos D. Hoyos
Universidad Nacional de Colombia,Universidad EAFIT,Corporación Clima
Author Profile

Abstract

Shortages of electricity in Colombia associated with droughts during El Niño-Southern Oscillation warm events lead government to seek diversification of the electricity matrix, which is mainly hydro (66%). Additionally, clean technologies like wind and solar power are alternatives to climate change. Potentially, solar radiation is high year-round in Colombia due to its low latitude, but clouds are the most critical limiting factor. In this paper, we measure and analyze the variations in efficiency resulting from different weather variables. Toward that end, we measure three photovoltaic systems located in three different zones of the valley. Simultaneously, we analyzed some of the limiting factors which influence solar radiation. For that, we consider radiation from 3 pyranometers, air temperature and relative humidity from meteorological sensors, water vapor density, liquid and solid water content from a microwave radiometer, reflectances as a proxy of clouds from GOES 16 satellite visible band 2. To identify clouds, we estimated radiance thresholds for the GOES information in the three locations of interest from changes in the surface radiation data. These thresholds provide identification of the most sensible hours for radiation based on the anomalies of the radiation under cloudiness conditions. Lastly, the efficiencies on each location were calculated considering the power data, as a proportion of the horizontal global radiation and the area of each solar panel.