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Completely oblivious of its surroundings, our single most, massive source of energy, the sun, produces power that amounts roughly up to 3.85x 10¹⁷ GW - that has contributed to a substantial amount of the world`s power needs, as the cost of the developing technology has gone down over the past years.

Pakistan`s location makes it an ideal country to tap into the solar resource, having an average annual irradiation of 6kWh/m²/day, to fulfill its power needs and add an increasing chunk to its economy.

The topography of Pakistan varies greatly ranging from the frostiest of the areas to sites realizing a 50 degrees Celsius. The variation of environment factors, such as ambient temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, and the solar irradiance encourages solar PV system designers to select the optimal PV and storage technology and vary designs according to application and location`s environment to optimize power output, increase system efficiency and decrease the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) to make solar accessible and practicable.

The 100-MW Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Plant, at Bahawalpur, was the first grid-connected IPP that was installed in 2015 and has been operational since August 2015, exceeding expectations and demands by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority in terms of producing energy, GWhs, for the months with optimal solar irradiance and temperatures. The plant is on its way to become the world`s largest with a peak capacity of 1,000 MW, installed with polycrystalline PV modules. The plant is not only intended to help the country meet its power requirement, decreasing the power deficit, but also to provide a model for foreign companies to invest in solar PV and earn profits up to huge margins.

The location of the plant bears high temperatures, moderate to high levels of relative humidity with low rainfall and ample solar irradiation - and annual of 1860 kWh/m². The PV module selection exhibits a 15.6 percent efficiency and a temperature co-efficient of -0.41 percent/C - indicating the thermal loss of power generated by solar PV modules as temperature increases above standard test conditions (STC) of 25 degrees Celsius. The 100-MW installation also suffers excess soiling due to sand storms and unsettled dust in the ground.

The performance of a solar PV installation is highly dependent on the environmental factors. As the environmental parameters change, the power output varies. High solar irradiance causes an increase in output; however, increase in ambient and panel temperature has a decreasing effect. The intermittent clouds or days with higher humidity tend to hinder the energy production as high energy wavelengths (shorter wavelengths) of the electromagnetic spectrum are absorbed in the atmosphere, leaving diffused radiation reaching the earth consisting of low energy wavelengths, not enough to fulfil the bandgap of the PV device.

Similarly, a change in declination angle of the earth toward the sun causes a variation in power production throughout the year - requiring an optimal tilt of solar PV modules. The PV plant produces optimal energy during and around equinoxes, as the major deciding parameters irradiance and temperature are moderate and closer to STC.

With commercialization of numerous other PV module technologies, the PV designers have a lot of variety to pick from PV module technologies. The 100-MW PV plant`s power production can be optimized. Analyzing the environmental factors of the plant`s location, the thin film cadmium telluride (CdTe) would have been a more beneficent technology for energy production. The First Solar, 112.5-Wp module was used in the analysis, with an efficiency of 15.6 percent, matching exactly the efficiency of the Cry-Si

module used, implicating almost the same amount of land required for the deployment of this technology, which was not possible due to lower efficiencies of the CdTe in the past.

Solar energy power systems