Impact of Climate Change on the Efficiency of Solar Cell

The objective of this paper is to review the impact of climate change on solar cells efficiency. What is most commonly studied is the impact of efficiency of solar cells on climate change. Lack of adequate knowledge of this vice versa effect of the impact of climate change on solar cells would hinder us from quantifying the impact of the problem (climate change) on the solution (solar electricity). This is the problem this paper aims to solve. The aim is to review different studies that relate climate change and solar cells and to call researchers’ attention to the urgency of responding to climate change. Different articles which related ambient temperature, wind speed, module temperature and irradiance with the efficiency of solar cells were reviewed. From these relationships, the rate of change of the efficiency of solar cells was quantified using a 50 year scenario forecast from the IPCC’s (Intergovernmental panel on climate change) report for 2013.The result showed that there is a going to be a slight decline in efficiency due to climate change. Photo voltaic cells are one of our few and most important weapons of fighting climate change, but it seems we need to be urgent about using it or looking for alternatives since the P.V cells themselves have been shown by different studies to be affected by the enemy it fights, climate change. Climatic factors such as ambient temperature and irradiance, which changes as the climate changes, definitely affect how efficient our solar cells work at a considerable rate.Published at the Proceedings of the International Conference of Mechanical Engineering, Energy Technology and Management (IMEETMCon 2014)