An experimental investigation of performance of photovoltaic modules in Pakistan

An outdoor experimental study was carried out to investigate and compare the performance of three commercially available photovoltaic modules (monocrystalline, polycrystalline and single junction amorphous silicon) under the weather of Pakistan for the month of January. Power output efficiency, module efficiency, and performance ratio are calculated for each module and comparison is presented. Results have shown that mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline modules perform better at high irradiance and show poor performance in low irradiance conditions. Amorphous solar module has shown better light absorption characteristic and performs better in low irradiance i.e. in cloudy and diffuse sunshine conditions. Monocrystalline photovoltaic module is found to be more efficient, having module efficiency of 13.5% which is higher than the other two modules. Furthermore the power output of mono-crystalline and poly-crystalline modules has shown a higher decrement at higher module temperatures compared to the amorphous solar module. Because of better performance in low solar irradiance, amorphous solar module has shown monthly average performance ratio of 1.07 which is higher than other photovoltaic modules under study