Impact of PV module configuration on energy yield under realistic conditions

Abstract

Photovoltaic cell and module manufactures optimise their products according to power measurements performed at a set of standard-test conditions. A key parameter for the financing of a solar project is yield under field or realistic conditions. Field testing modules is time consuming and costly. Hence, we develop a methodology for simulating PV module yield based on the optical, thermal and electrical properties of the components, and the module configuration regarding the cell spacing, interconnection and module layers. With our procedure, we model the performance of standard, half cell and encapsulant free modules in different locations. We present results using our cell to module yield framework for 16 different locations in Australia based on one-minute ground measured solar irradiance and ambient temperature values. We find low-light irradiance losses are directly correlated to the number of cloudy days at a given site. The majority of fielded losses are due to temperature effects, which can be predicted by the average temperature at 3 p.m. We note that wind speed is not accounted for and it will be incorporated in future studies.