Abstract
Renewable power-source resources seem to be the most prominent amid the best and prolific responses for the global energy problem. The impacts of environmental change have turned into a significant reality of the 21st century. No nation is absolutely protected from the swift climatic changes; and amongst the results of the negative effects of fossil energies are the greenhouse effect, global warming and climate forcing. Photovoltaic (PV) has drawn an incredible enthusiasm from manufacturers, researchers, and leaders, as a wellspring of clean energy because of its economic importance and natural advantages. There is an awesome potential for the utilization of photovoltaic solar panels with high productivity in some regions around the globe because of the high power of solar radiation in these regions. In this research, studies were conducted on the optimization of photovoltaic solar panels. The experimental setup was conducted in which three 250watts similar photovoltaic solar panels were installed at a tilt-angle of 0; 6.8 and 16.8 degrees to the horizontal for the period of 90 days at the Engineering faculty of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka – with the aim of determining the suitable optimal tilted-angles for the photovoltaic solar panel at the present location. It was shown that temperature has a negative coefficient on the maximum power output and open circuit voltage, which causes a reduction in power output from -8.31% to -10.87% and -6.38% to – 8.34% in open circuit voltage. Also, a positive coefficient in the output current, which causes an increase of 1.3% to 1.69% was observed. Lastly, three linear Regression analysis models and a multiple linear-regression model combining the effects of temperature, humidity and solar radiation were generated with the assistance of the social sciences package software (SPSS) and the MATLAB software. viii | P a g e The predicted output power efficiency datasets of each model were then trained on the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm learning machine, with the assistance of the MATLAB-2017b software package to about 70% (1222) of the total (1746) datasets with the original power output efficiency for about 1000 iterations for the period of 7 seconds for each iteration. The overall correlation coefficient of the temperature model, the humidity model, the solar-radiation regression model and the multiple-regression model of temperature, humidity and solar radiation were 0.73709, 0.69393, 0.99678 and 0.99891 respectively. It was concluded that the combined model would be preferred; and it would be the best way to predict the output power efficiency of the photovoltaic model in relation to the other three models in this present study. The optimum tilt-angle of 0 degree for the month of July and August, the optimum tilt-angle of 6.8 degree for the month of September, are recommended for the installation of photovoltaic solar panels at Nsukka, Nigeria for the optimization of power output efficiency of the photovoltaic solar panel. -14.352 0.648 0.093 0.075 Regression model obtained in this study can be used to predict the output of the power efficiency of the photovoltaic solar panels installed at a tilt-angle between 0 and 6.8 degrees to the horizontal at Nsukka, Nigeria, as well as other locations with comparable weather conditions to those of Nsukka. Keywords: data-logger, efficiency, humidity, model, optimization, photovoltaic, regression analysis, solar radiation, temperature, tilt-angle.
Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering Science)