The Model of Solar Power Plant Efficiency Improvement: A Case Study in Lampang, Thailand

This research studies the factors influencing the efficiency of solar power plants to form a control system for increasing their performance. The case study is conducted in Lampang province, Thailand. The investigated factors include irradiance, humidity, wind speed, ambient temperature, module temperature and power peak. All the data are analysed correlating with the electric power. The results show that the major factor influencing the solar power plants is irradiance. The efficiency also depends on cleaning or dirty of panel. Therefore, solar power plants efficiency could be improved by periodically cleaning. The decision point of cleaning is analysed. It is used to create the program model. The module temperature influences on the energy generation. If the module temperature increases, the generated energy decreases. On the other hand, humidity, wind speed, ambient temperature and power peak had less significant effect on solar energy generation. After panel cleaning, generated energy is increased about 5.6%-12.7% a month or approximately 6,780--15,240 kW-hour per month. Finally, the income per unit is 0.19 USD and the value return is 4.5 times of investment cost.