Measuring and Statistical Analysis of Environmental Parameters

The main purpose of this work is to measure the environmental parameters as well as studying their effects on the photovoltaic (PV) performance. The book introduces an overview about the weather stations' features, main types, and their constituent components. It also presents and develops the mathematical modeling and simulation of a generalized PV model. The developed PV model is designed by using MATLAB/Simulink software that enables the PV system designers to easily study the affect of the environmental conditions on the PV performance. It can also estimate the different maximum power points (MPPs) that correspond to any incident solar insolation level or cell temperature. The simulation results show a matched output characteristic with that obtained from an actual PV module (Siemens SP75).In addition, this book introduces the basic concepts of measuring a sensor-signal and how to interface it to a data-acquisition system. Also, it presents the complete installation and configuration of a WMS-16 weather station at the studied site. The recorded environmental parameters are analyzed by using the statistical methods, and their effects on the PV performance are indicated.