INVESTIGATION OF PERFORMANCE OF CRYSTALLINE SILICON PHOTOVOLTAIC MODULES

Abstract

The crystalline silicon is categorized into mono-crystalline (m-Si) and poly-crystalline (p-Si) photovoltaic cells. These two types of solar cells differ in their performance parameters, due to their structure, internal property, temperature co-efficient, and loss in power output. In this paper, an analysis has been carried out by comparing the performance of m-Si and p-Si when connected in series or parallel or in combination. The variations in fill factor and efficiency due to changes in the electrical load resistance, and the mismatch effect on electrical parameters have been studied. Under different climatic conditions, m-Si and p-Si performance may differ and therefore the suitable area of selection varies, based on the type of solar cell used. Two p-Si and one m-Si photovoltaic module exhibits 80.51% fill factor early in the day and 11.25% fill factor during the latter part of the day. The fill factor Vs load resistance curve for various combinations and photovoltaic module efficiency Vs photovoltaic module area curve are drawn at T1 time period. The performance of the photovoltaic modules are evaluated from output characteristic curves of voltage, current, and power with tilt angle.