Abstract

The study investigates impact of hostile weather conditions on performance and viability of solar farm establishment in Nigeria. This was done on two different PV Modules of 10MW capacity using NASA radiation data for six (6) different locations (Abuja, Birnin-Kebbi, Enugu, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Maiduguri) in Nigeria. RET Screen clean energy software was used in the simulation. The results show dependence of Capacity Utilization Factor (CUF) on Solar Irradiation among other design and technological factors like Controlled tracking of PV Module and type. Other Factors like air temperature, wind speed, elevation from horizon and latitude of the location that affect irradiation are also investigated. The findings showed that increasing the output of the system by increasing the capacity of PV module does not affect CUF but attract additional cost, thus making solar farm in hostile environment costly.