PV plants performance analysis under mutable operating condition

Abstract

This paper investigates the performances of PV plant installed in Southern Italy under mutable environmental conditions. This analysis has been performed on a measurement campaign, demonstrating how the performances of the PV system are influenced by the variability of solar irradiance. In fact, the more the irradiance level is high, the more will be the corresponding joule and thermal losses affecting the whole system. This evidence demonstrates the inadequacy of evaluation methods requiring a single instantaneous experimental verification of the minimum efficiency level used, for instance, for functional testing of photovoltaic systems.