The effects of climate change on the efficiency of solar photovoltaic systems in the Czech Republic by the year 2050

Bc. Mariia Frolova

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The main research question of the thesis asks what will be the effect of climate change on the performance of the photovoltaic system in the Czech Republic and what impacts this will have on the carbon emission target. The hypothesis of this thesis is that it is expected that climate change will negatively affect the power generation efficiency of a photovoltaic system and that the energy losses associated with this could be an obstacle to achieving the goal of carbon neutrality. The purpose of this thesis is to determine how much energy in kWh may be lost due to impacts associated with climate change by 2050. The power of photovoltaic modules can decrease with every degree of warming. The work will take into account the amount of solar panel capacity in the Czech Republic that is planned to be delivered by 2030 in order to understand how much energy (kWh) needs to be offset by 2050 in order to reach the goal of net zero. The analysis showed that climate change has an impact on the performance of solar panels. According to the RCP 2.6 scenario output energy of monocrystalline PV installations will be reduced by an average of 76608 kWh in the Czech Republic, under the RCP 4.5 scenario the output energy will be reduced by 155150 kWh and under the RCP 8.5 scenario it will be reduced by 238103 kWh, using simulation data of the Czech Republic.

Keywords

Photovoltaic energy in the Czech Republic, Climate change, Renewable Energy, Solar power estimation, PV cell performance, Solar Photovoltaic systems

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 3. 4. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 17. 5. 2023
• Supervisor: doc. Peter Kumble, Ph.D.
• Reader: Ali Danesh, Ing.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Environmental Sciences

Master programme / field:
Engineering Ecology / Nature Conservation