Effect of Annual Ambient Temperature Increase on Solar PV plant performance: Case Study of 300MW, Sakaka Saudi Arabia

The 300 MW Sakaka Independent Power Plant (IPP) is the first plant in the Saudi national renewable energy program. The plant, located at Al Jouf, covered an area of 6 square kilometers. Sakaka IPP harnesses solar energy by utilizing photovoltaic (PV) technology.The power plant, which is connected to the national electricity grid, is supplying clean energy to power more than 75,000 Saudi Arabian households and avoid the production of more than 430,000 t of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year.This paper investigates the effects of the annual ambient temperature increase on solar PV panels performance. A JKMS225PP-60B solar panel has been used as reference model. The simulation results show that the temperature impacts solar panels critical parameters such as open circuit voltage, short circuit current and fill factor. Although the performance ratio during cold ambient temperature was better than hot temperature, the energy production was less due to low irradiance values during the cold weather conditions.