Climate-Driven Performance Assessment and Loss Mechanisms of Utility- Scale Photovoltaic Systems

Abstract Saudi Arabia possesses exceptionally high levels of solar irradiance, providing substantial potential for utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) deployment. However, the conversion of this solar resource into electricity is strongly influenced by site-specific climatic and environmental conditions, particularly elevated ambient temperatures, airborne dust and soiling, and coastal atmospheric conditions. This study presents a climate-driven comparative assessment of utility-scale PV systems across three representative climatic regions of Saudi Arabia: Qassim, representing an inland desert climate; Makkah, representing a hot-arid climate; and Jazan, representing a hot and humid coastal climate. A hybrid assessment framework is developed by integrating long-term satellite- and meteorological-data-derived climatic inputs from NASA POWER, Solargis, and Meteonorm with detailed PVsyst simulations based on representative utility-scale PV system configurations. Key performance measures, such as specific PV yield, performance ratio (PR), temperature-related losses, and soiling losses, are used to compare the systems. The findings show that increasing solar irradiation does not always result in proportionately higher PV energy generation since environmental losses and high module operating temperatures might significantly outweigh the advantages of the available solar resource. The annual specific PV yield varies from roughly 1650 to 2050 kWh/kWp throughout the locations under investigation, and the corresponding PR varies from 0.76 to 0.84, indicating the impact of site-specific loss mechanisms and climatic circumstances. Instead of depending just on solar-resource intensity, the comparison results emphasize the significance of including temperature-dependent module performance and environmental loss processes in PV yield evaluations. The work highlights the necessity of climate-aware optimization of PV deployment in high-irradiance desert and coastal locations and offers climate-specific insights for utility-scale PV system design and performance prediction.