Seasonal Variation of the Monthly Efficiencies of Thin Film PV Modules

Abstract

Outdoor testing of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules must be carried out at different climates as PV power plants nowadays are installed and continues to be installed in many countries. Present study is outdoor testing results and analyses of 5 thin film modules in Ankara, Turkey. The analyses are carried out using monthly efficiencies of the modules that are derived using the energy yield and input. The average efficiencies of the CIS, CIGS and mu-Si/a-Si thin film modules are. We present the monthly and average efficiencies and discuss their variations with the parameter: input, ambient temperature and relative humidity. We also carried out seasonal analyses using Pearson's correlation coefficient and find out that the efficiencies are differently dependent on the above mentioned parameters. This arose a new open question on differentiation of the strength of the effect of each parameter on the monthly efficiencies.