Regional atmosphere-solar PV interactions

The relative importance of atmospheric variables such as temperature, humidity, aerosols, clouds, soiling, and snowfall, are considered for arid versus temperate regions, with specific comparison of the U.S. Southwest and Saudi Arabia with the U.S. Southeast and Ontario, Canada. Meteorological data from representative sites in these regions were obtained from NOAA NCDC, NREL TMY3, NASA AERONET, PME JRCC, and KACST to identify key atmospheric variables for each region. Estimates of the change in average monthly PV performance due to atmospheric variables are 0 to <;-6% for temperature, <;-1% to >1% for humidity, <;-0.1% to >0.1% for aerosols, 0 to <;-30% for clouds, 0 to <;-3% for soiling with cleaning, and 0 to <;-5% for snowfall. The energy density of CdTe PV systems (Wh/m²) in a hot and humid climate such as Jeddah, Saudi Arabia is projected to exceed that of multi-c-Si by ~20% by 2017 due to improvements in module efficiency and differences in temperature coefficient and spectral response to humidity.