Performance Evaluation of Different PV Technologies and Its Effect on Associated Inverter under Different Climatic Conditions

Feasibility of investment in PV system needs to an accurate expectation of the system yield. This yield depends on the installation site, PV technology and balance of system. Therefore, this paper analyzes the actual performance of installed 5.94 kW of PV systems consist of mono-crystalline (2.04 kW), poly-crystalline (2.04 kW) and amorphous (1.86 kW) silicon technologies. The analysis period extends over different five days in order to assess the performance of PV technologies under various climatic conditions. These days are characterized by clear sky with high temperature, clear sky with low temperature, cloudy sky, rainy and snowy days. Also the PV performance such as output power and voltage affects the performance of other system components specially the solar inverters. Therefore, the paper applies standard IEC 61724 (1998) PV system performance indicators such as final yield, array yield, capture losses, system losses, DC performance ratio and AC performance ratio on each PV system. In addition, the paper suggests a new index (inverter performance index) to describe the effect of PV system on inverter performance due to deviation from nominal operating condition. The analysis data such as (ambient temperature, solar irradiation, modules temperature, DC power...etc.) are collected from the site each five minutes using dedicated monitoring system.