Effect of Ambient Conditions on Monthly Performances of Three Different PV Arrays

Abstract

Solar PV cells may be mainly divided into two parts as crystalline and thin film. Mono-crystalline silicon (e.g. Mono-Si) and microcrystalline based amorphous silicon and other thin films (e.g. gc-Si/a-Si and CdTe thin films) are widely used PV cells in the arrays. The outdoor performances of these systems depend on some climatic parameters and conditions, and it is important to understand how the monthly efficiencies vary with these parameters. In the present study, the data obtained from three grid connected PV arrays of Mono Si, a-Si/p.c-Si and CdTe thin film that were operated for 41 months in Ankara-Turkey is analyzed. The results showed that Mono-Si an-ay performance depends on the 5 parameters of outdoor climatic conditions while a-Si/gc-Si and CdTe thin film arrays performances arc not significantly affected by the variation of the climatic parameters. The possible reasons are discussed in details.