• An increase in solar radiation and temperature at the power plant location was observed. • Increased solar radiation and temperature did not lead to significant degradation of PV module characteristics. • Contrary to expectations related to the degradation of PV panels, the power output of the plant has not decreased. The aim of the study is to analyse the impact of climate change on the operation of the rooftop photovoltaic (PV) power plant with the rated power of 8.0 kW. To analyse the impact of climate change on the operation of a photovoltaic power plant, the most important factors affecting the power plant’s production were investigated; the solar radiation and air temperature, the power degradation and some anomalies of PV modules. The mean annual sum of solar irradiation was 1519.1 kWh/m 2 with a growth tendency of 13.3 kWh/m 2 per year. The mean value of the temperature is 15.4 °C with an annual growth tendency of 0.15 °C. In order to assess the degradation of PV module power, measurements of the parameters of all PV modules in the power plant were carried out during the summer of 2024 to determine the current state after 13 years of operation. The average annual degradation of power is 0.76 %. The average annual electricity production in the observed period is 11582.7 kWh with an annual growth tendency of 6 kWh/year. Before the construction of the power plant the production was estimated at 11,265 kWh/year using the PVSyst software. Since 2012 when the power plant production has been monitored this software has been improved and the meteorological databases have been updated. Therefore, the power plant production was estimated with newer versions of the software. In all cases the PVGIS meteorological database was used. The input horizontal radiation data show an increasing trend of 1347 kWh/m 2 (2012), 1367 kWh/m 2 (2019) and 1402 kWh/m 2 (2023). Therefore, the annual production estimate increases to 11,531 kWh (2019) and to 11,824 kWh in the simulation in 2023. Despite the degradation of the power of the PV panels, the expected drop in production during long-term operation is not observed. This phenomenon contributes to the further reduction of CO 2 emissions.
Čorba et al. (Sat,) studied this question.