| dc.description.abstract | Facing climate change issues and setting the goal of net-zero carbon emission by 2050, the government of Taiwan has been actively pursuing renewable energy development, with a focus on solar photovoltaics. However, solar photovoltaics is susceptible to climate and environmental changes, and the literature suggests that the deterioration of air quality could be a potential factor for reducing the efficiency of solar power generation. Particulate matters pose a wide range of threats not only to human health but also to the creation of haze. Particulate matters will scatter and absorb sunlight to reduce the amount of solar radiation reaching the earth’s surface that suppress the ability to generate electricity from solar power. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of particulate matters on the efficiency of solar power generation, serving as a reference for future investments from the private sector and the setting of energy policies by the government.
This study adopts fixed effect model to quantify the impact of suspended air particulates, specifically PM2.5 and PM10, on the efficiency of solar power generation, relative to the maximum capacity, using power generation data of 13 solar power plants operated by Taiwan Power Company and data from weather stations and air quality stations located in the vicinity from January 1, 2014, to September 30, 2021. This study takes north wind as the instrumental variable and uses two-stage least square (2SLS) method to address the endogeneity problem between PM2.5/ PM10 and solar power generation efficiency.
The empirical results show that capacity factor decreases by 0.728% per 1 μg/m3 increase in the hourly average PM2.5 concentration and by 0.293% per 1 μg/m3 increase in the hourly average PM10 concentration, indicating that the deterioration of air quality significantly reduces the efficiency of solar power generation. This study also finds that such negative effect is more concentrated in the range of poor air quality, and the square terms of PM2.5 and PM10 reveal the non-linear effect that further increase in the concentration of PM2.5/PM10 dampens power generation efficiency less substantially. In summary, the government should consider the negative impact of suspended particulate matters on solar photovoltaics when formulating renewable energy policies, and give more consideration to site selection when building photovoltaic power stations. | en_US |