eng Science and Education Publishing Sustainable Energy 2372-2142 2020-07-19 8 1 6 11 10.12691/rse-8-1-2 RSE2020812 article Ghormahhah S. Alzahrani 1 Fahad S. Alzahrani 2 Ahmed M. Nahhas amnahhas@uqu.edu.sa 3 Department of Engineering Affairs, General Directorate of Civil Defense, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia Engineering Management Department, National Commercial Bank, Baha, Saudi Arabia Department of Electrical Engineering, Umm Al Qura University, Makkah, Saudi Arabia This paper presents the study of some specific factors that affect the performance of the photovoltaic (PV) solar cells including characteristics, types, advantages and disadvantages and the most important factors effecting the efficiency of the solar cells. The outdoor performance of PV module is influenced by many factors. Some of these issues are related to the module itself and others are related to the location and the environment. Few of these factors are material degradation, solar irradiance, module temperature, parasitic resistances, fill-factor, shading, soiling and Potential Induced Degradation (PID). The solar energy productivity of two major cities of Jeddah, and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia were presented and discussed. http://pubs.sciepub.com/rse/8/1/2/rse-8-1-2.pdf PV solar cells renewable efficiency Jeddah Riyadh